Now is Not The Time to Use That
by Project Deathstar
Summary: Red is familiar with the basics of pokémon battling, but assisting Professor Oak had made him complacent about the subject. Now eleven, he embarks on his own journey and learns to deal with the silly and serious aspects of the pokémon world alongside the friends he makes, human and pokémon. Remake of Pokémon Misadventures.
1. Chapter 1: A (Technically) Man Chooses

Chapter 1: A Man (By This World's Legal Definition) Chooses

"Greetings, and welcome to the world of Pokémon!"

The group of children immediately quieted from their chattering and watched in awe as a middle aged man in a lab coat addressed them. For many of them it was their first time in the Pallet Town pokémon lab, and as a result most of them were close to jumping up and down with anticipation.

"My name is Oak," the man in the lab coat said. "People affectionately call me the Pokémon Professor."

Oak smiled as he pulled out a red and white ball. Pressing a button on the ball's equator caused the ball to open and unleash a stream of bluish-white energy, with a small blue rodent like creature materializing from it.

"Nidoran!" the creature spoke.

"Oooooh," the children said collectively.

Oak scooped the Nidoran up in his arms. "This world is inhabited by creatures called Pokémon. For some people, Pokémon are pets. Others use them for battling. As for myself…"

The Pokémon Professor scratched the Nidoran's ears before setting her down. Another beam of light came from the ball and dematerialized the pokémon, signifying its return to the ball.

"I study pokémon as a profession."

The professor turned to his left. "Now, what's your name?"

Oak stopped speaking, as if waiting for someone else to start in his place. The children waited in silent confusion.

"…Um, sorry," Oak chuckled. "This is where my assistant usually chimes in. Red. Red?"

A black haired boy clad in a red short-sleeve jacket, jeans and red and white baseball cap leaning against the lab's inner entrance jolted once he heard his name.

"S-sorry professor," Red said.

The boy cleared his throat, getting into character.

"I'm Red," he said with a tone indicating he's done this multiple times before. "And I've made it my goal to become a trainer. As a trainer, one has to know quite a bit about pokémon! Now, who's ready to take a tour of the lab so you guys can learn how to become trainers too?"

Every last kid raised their hands and shouted "Me! Me! Me!" at the top of their little lungs.

"Well too bad," Red said. "Because I released all the lab's pokémon back into the harsh wilderness this morning."

"Red!"

"I'm just kidding!" Red said assuredly as some of the children began quivering their lips. "Your very own Pokémon legend is about to unfold. Let's go!"

The group of children cheered as Red led them into the laboratory, with Professor Oak following the group in, shaking his head with an amused grin towards his assistant.

The professor knew Red since the boy was a baby, and felt that he had become a second grandson to him. The boy grew up with only his mother looking after him, and has had a love for pokémon ever since becoming friends with his mother's Poliwag, now a Poliwhirl, as a toddler.

As of the tomorrow though, Red will be eleven years old, which is the official age one would be legally able to travel the Kanto region in search of pokémon, a journey dozens make. It is during that journey many boys and girls determine what kind of man and woman they will be for the rest of their lives, deciding on their careers and pursuing their dreams.

The only problem is, out of all the young would-be trainers Oak had mentored through his own career as a professor, Red was the only one who absolutely would not tell him what he wants to do once on his journey.

Fortunately for this year, Professor Oak thinks he has devised something to get Red motivated. Something that has never been done before, something that could change the field of pokémon study and allow its participants to go down in history.

Red led the children all around the lab and showed them the different species of pokémon, perfectly explaining their types and qualities, answering any questions the group had and letting some smaller pokémon out for the children to interact with themselves. Oak's pride for Red swelled in that moment, second only to the pride he felt for his grandson, who was returning from his training that night.

"Hope you guys learned a lot!" Red said to the group as he opened the door leading back outside. "And be nice for the next guy when you come back next year."

"Will we see you again Mister Red?" one little boy asked.

Red paused. "Not for a while. But I promise if I'm back by next year, I'll have some presents for you guys."

"Yay!" the children cheered as they went out the door where their parents waited.

"You really are good at this," Professor Oak said as Red shut the door once more. "I'm going to miss having you around to help me."

Red grinned. "And I'm going to miss raiding your fridge."

"You did stop drinking my juice, right?" Oak asked with suspicion. "It was imported from Kalos and made with special grapes."

Red raised his hands. "I already said I was sorry about that. And I only ever drank the one bottle, which took forever to pay off by the way."

Red went back into the lab to grab his backpack.

"So," Oak said as he followed Red. "Tomorrow's the big day. Nervous? Excited?"

"Some of Column A," Red said as he opened the bag to re-check its contents, "Mostly Column B."

"Any thoughts on what you might do on your journey?" Oak asked.

Red shrugged. "I figured I'd just make it up as I go along."

Oak frowned slightly. The answer he expected but not the one he hoped for.

"One thing for sure though, I'm going to catch as many pokémon as I see."

Oak grinned at hearing that. "Funny you should mention that. I was wondering if you'd like to swing back by the lab early tomorrow morning. I have a couple of things I'd like to give you."

Red raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Is this another one of your experiments? Because the last one ended _so_ well."

"If you're referring to the incident involving that Mr. Mime and that one Sherryl Crow album, I seem to recall it being _your_ idea."

"You sanctioned it!" Red argued with a laugh.

"I didn't think you would actually go through with it," Oak said. "Or that the other pokémon would behave in that manner."

"Yeah," Red said. "The town's never going to let me live that one down."

"They might if you… I don't know…competed in the-"

"No," Red said, zipping his backpack.

"You never told me why," Oak said.

"I don't want to," Red said. "Simple as that."

"I'm not going to force it on you," Professor Oak said. "I just think it would be good for you."

"I just don't see the point," Red said as he hoisted his pack over one shoulder and slipped his other arm through the second strap. "We haven't had a champion in twelve years, and most trainers from here never make it as far as the sixth gym."

"Well, you could always be the first," Professor Oak said.

"What about your grandson?" Red said.

"Oh yes, um… what was his name again?"

Red cast a deadpan look. "Please tell me you didn't seriously forget your own flesh and blood's name."

The professor chuckled. "Of course not, I'm only teasing. Anyway, Blue should be returning from his training within a couple of hours."

"He has more of a chance becoming champion than I do," Red said. "I've never even used a pokémon to battle before and he's definitely not going to let me forget that."

"Come now, I'm sure he's matured by now."

"No he hasn't," Red stated simply.

"No he hasn't," Oak agreed with resignation. "Well, if you do not wish to compete in the Indigo League that's more than fine. It was only a suggestion."

Red scratched his neck awkwardly. Wishing to change the subject, he said, "So… you want me to pick up a couple of things tomorrow?"

"Oh, yes," the professor nodded. "I believe they will help you and Blue on your journeys, especially if you want to catch as many pokémon as possible."

Red's eyes widened after the professor said that.

"What is it?" he asked excitedly.

"You'll see," Oak winked.

"Is one of those things a pokémon?" Red asked, jumping up and down in place. "You're giving me a starter, right?"

"Maybe…." Professor Oak replied.

As Red kept jumping for the next few seconds, Oak sighed once he realized Red wouldn't leave without a confirmation.

"Yes."

"Whoo-hoo!" Red shouted. "I'll be here at the crack of dawn professor!"

"Well, you don't have to be here _that_ early-" the professor said.

"If I do, can I get first pick?"

"I-I suppose so…"

"Thank you so much professor!" Red said. "I can't wait!"

Professor Oak smiled as he held out a wad of bills towards his now-officially former assistant.

"Here's your last pay wage," Oak said. "Hopefully that will last you for at least a little while on your journey."

Red accepted the cash, stuffed it in his pocket and shook the professor's hand.

"It was great working with you Professor! I'll see you tomorrow!"

Red let go and ran out the door of the lab and all the way through Pallet Town back to his house, where he spent the rest of the evening eagerly waiting for the dawn of the next day.

* * *

 _"_ _Jigglypuff, Ji-guh-leee-puff"_

Red slapped the Jigglypuff alarm clock off his nightstand immediately as he woke. He chuckled, for he had studied from a book on Normal-types how Jigglypuff would use Sing to put opponents in a light comatose state with a tune of its own creation.

The boy had a healthy love of irony.

Once Red got dressed, he bolted down the stairs towards the blue walled living room of his house, only to nearly tumble into Poli, the family Poliwhirl, at the foot of the stairs.

"Poliwhirl!" the Tadpole Pokémon exclaimed.

"Yeah, today's the day!" Red agreed.

"Do you have everything ready to take with you honey?" Red's mom asked while in the house's small kitchen.

"Everything except what Professor Oak said he had for me," Red replied. "Which I'm going to get this morning."

Red looked back at Poli. "And you're going to have a new buddy traveling with us."

Poli's eyes lit up at that. Red could tell he's wanted a fellow pokémon to play with for a while and now he looked like Christmas came early.

"Come get some breakfast first," Red's mom said. "I made your favorite."

 _Chocolate chip and peanut butter pancakes_ , Red thought. _Favorite is an understatement._

Mother and son sat down to eat together, each beginning to realize that this would be the last meal the two will share for a while.

"You will call in every town right?" Red's mom asked.

"Of course," Red replied.

Red's mom smiled. "My little baby boy, all grown up now."

She placed her fork down as tears started to shine in her eyes.

"Aw, Mom," Red said, putting down his own fork and putting a hand over his mother's. "It's not like I'm never coming back."

"I know," Red's mom said. "And I'm sure you'll have a promising career as a trainer, no matter what path you decide to take."

Red removed his hand and darted his eyes to the side. He didn't want to tell his mother that he still didn't know what he wanted to do once he became a trainer. He could take the route Professor Oak did and become a researcher, but it seemed everyone he talked to always suggested battling first.

It's not that Red did not know anything about battling or never gave thought to doing it. Heck, he loved watching matches on TV. He knew from his research that pokémon were naturally competitive, a trait that all species were determined to have shared as a result of having one common ancestor…which is an unconfirmed theory, but has merit as evidenced by the biology of the Ditto species. He ran simulations as part of his tutelage and was able to win a majority of them due to exploiting type advantages.

But real life would no doubt be different, and Red doubted felling a large pokémon with one effective move would be that quick, easy and frequent. Plus, he felt unprepared for status enhancing moves pokémon could perform, as he never had the patience for them in the simulations.

And catching pokémon required at least a little battling.

Was he really going to be cut out for this?

"What if I…" Red started. He shut his mouth as he thought of what to say, but then opened it again. "What if I-I'm not saying I will but- _if_ I decide to actually battle, what if I can't do it?"

Red's mother placed her hand on his shoulder and pulled him into a hug.

"You can do anything Red," she said. "You're an intelligent boy and pokémon love you. I'm not going to lie, there will be times where you _will_ have to battle outside of catching pokémon. Especially with those Team Rocket characters prowling about. But if you decide to compete, just remember it's not about winning. It's about strengthening the bond between you and your pokémon."

Red smiled. He wasn't fully reassured, but his mom always knew how to make him feel slightly more at ease.

"Thanks mom."

"Now go pick up that starter pokémon," Red's mom said excitedly. "And be sure to swing back by to pick up Poli. Wouldn't want to forget him."

"Never," Red agreed. "That Poliwhirl saved my life."

After he finished eating, Red went out the front door and walked down the path leading to the lab, the black sky slowly becoming pink and orange as daybreak approached. Once Red made it back to the rectangular building that had become a second home to him, he fumbled through his pocket for the keys, grinning to himself that he made it before-

"Well, well, well, well, well," a cocky voice echoed from behind. "Wet-The-Bed Red. It's been a while."

Red groaned. He turned to the voice with a glare.

"Not long enough of a while, Blue."

Blue Oak smirked. Some parts of him were the same as when Red last saw him; same brown spiky hair, same blue long sleeved shirt, same punch able smirk. Two major things were different though.

One, over the waist of his jeans was a belt that had a single pokéball attached, which meant Blue had already found a pokémon while away, which will most likely be more powerful than the starters in Professor Oak's lab and maybe more powerful than Poli.

The other thing Red noticed was how Blue had now gotten slightly taller than him. That's one more thing Blue can add to his list of things to annoy Red about, in addition to his embarrassing nickname (based on ONE incident from when they were five and had a sleepover).

Blue whistled. "Harsh. I thought we were friends."

"Really?" Red asked. "Because last time I checked a dictionary, the word _friend_ wasn't defined as 'guy who suddenly started harassing me for no reason and developed the need to shove his superiority complex in one's face'."

"Could you _be_ any wordier when talking?" Blue said, rolling his eyes.

"Ok, how's this: You're a jerk."

"And _you_ are a dork," Blue replied. "We all have flaws."

Red rolled his eyes and continued to unlock the door. Blue wasn't going to get to him anymore. _He_ is the grown-up one, not Blue.

"Gramps is right behind me by the way," Blue said as he followed Red in. "Just in case you were thinking of running off with all three pokémon, since we all know how greedy you can be."

"Oh like you've never raided one or two fridges," Red replied, already wishing he was back in bed despite being full of energy before.

Once the two were in the lab's main room, Professor Oak walked around them to a table with three pokéballs lined in a row. Each had a label in front of them displaying the pokémon's name.

"Well," Oak began with a proud grin. "Eleven years ago today you were both born only hours apart. Now, you both are ready to travel through Kanto and train pokémon. Time certainly flies doesn't it?"

Oak gestured to the table. "I've prepared something for the two of you, but first let's get the part you two are most excited for out of the way. Red, since I promised you could get first pick if you were early, go on ahead."

Red breathed in and walked forward. He stopped in front of the table and read each of the labels:

 _Bulbasaur, the Seed Pokémon_

 _Charmander, the Lizard Pokémon_

 _Squirtle, the Tiny Turtle Pokémon_

"Ok," Red said more to himself than the others. "I've thought on this for a while last night and all of this morning, and the pokémon I choose is…"

He picked up the first pokéball in the row.

"Bulbasaur," Red confirmed, holding up the pokéball for the professor to see.

"Good choice Red," Professor Oak nodded.

Blue, however, snorted. "You would choose the one nobody else would, you hipster."

Red glared. "Bulbasaur is reliable. Not only is it the only starter that's dual typed in all three of its evolutionary stages, but it also can learn a multitude of status inflicting moves that help in both battling and catching other pokémon."

"Whatever," Blue said as he came up to the table himself. "I actually thought you were going to choose Charmander because of some stupid reason like it matching your name."

Blue smirked as he picked up Charmander's pokéball. "Oh well, that just means _I_ can take it now."

"So Red, you have chosen Bulbasaur," Professor Oak said, "and Blue, you have chosen Charmander. Excellent!"

"What will happen to the Squirtle?" Red asked, slightly feeling bad that it didn't get chosen.

"It will stay in the lab with the other pokémon," Oak said, "and be cared for until a trainer can be found for it."

Professor Oak walked around the table towards a cabinet. "Now, to get to the main reason you two are here. You two may be used to the presence of PCs having grown up with them, but they are still a relatively new invention. To think we could digitally store pokémon; I still marvel at it."

Professor Oak opened the cabinet and reached in. "It is my belief that this technology has opened the door for my life's dream to finally come true. You both are aware that there are several books and journals written on individual pokémon species, types and so on, but no comprehensive encyclopedia on all 149 species found in the Kanto region."

Professor Oak placed two red devices on the table and closed the cabinet. "Thanks to the PC, one could potentially catch all 149 species and make this encyclopedia. But it won't be written with ink and paper."

The professor turned and held up one of the devices. "It will be recorded on this."

Red and Blue looked at each other, then back to the device in confusion.

"What is it?" Red asked.

"This, my boy, is the Pokédex," Professor Oak said with triumph. "I've spent the past two years developing it. A device that, after scanning a pokémon, will be able to tell you all sorts of information on it; its habitat, cry, weight, even the potential move list it could know.

Oak handed the rectangular device to Red. "These are prototypes, so they are the only two in existence at the moment. However, the board for the Pokémon Institute said if it proves to be a success in Kanto, they will permit professors from other regions to build and issue their own versions."

"And you're giving these to us?" Red asked with amazement.

"I believe the two of you are the best candidates," Professor Oak said. "You have my complete trust."

"How do these work?" Blue asked as his grandfather handed him the other pokédex.

"If one of you would release your starter," Professor Oak said, "I can demonstrate."

"I'll go," Red said as he gave back his pokédex and prepared his pokéball. "Bulbasaur, go!"

Red threw the pokéball in the air, which released a stream of light that materialized into a dinosaur like creature with a green bulb on its back.

"…Saur?"

"Now," Professor Oak said, holding up the pokédex so the small, circular blue scanner on the top left hand corner of the device was facing Bulbasaur. "All you need to do is point this at any pokémon in front of you and the pokémon will automatically be scanned."

Professor Oak then pressed a triangular button on the right hand side, causing the device to swing open from right to left, revealing a miniature keyboard and a small screen.

"Then, the pokémon most recently scanned will appear on this screen, along with all of its information."

An image of Bulbasaur appeared on the screen, along with text below that the professor scrolled through with the directional buttons.

"Cool," Red said as the Professor handed him back the device.

The Bulbasaur sniffed at the feet of his new trainer.

"Hey there," Red said, knees bending so he could be on the same level as his new pokémon. "I'm Red."

Bulbasaur stared at Red for minutes. As Red was about to reach out and pet it in reassurance, vines came from the sides of his bulb and reached behind Red.

"AAAAAAUUGGGHH!"

Red was being lifted up by his underwear, pulled from inside his jeans.

Blue was laughing harder than Red have ever seen, enough to where his face was turning purple.

"Oh man, being given a wedgie by your own starter," Blue said, gasping as he calmed down. "That's too good."

He released his new Charmander and picked it up with it facing him.

"You won't do anything like that to me," he said proudly. "You're the better one-"

Before Blue could finish, Charmander spat a stream of flame into his face. Once the pokémon stopped, the boy's face was singed. All he could do was cough out a puff of smoke.

It was now Red's turn to laugh, in spite of the pain he was in at the moment.

Professor Oak sweatdropped. "Well, um… they may be a little tricky to reign in at first. They are technically still children after all."

Red sighed. If this was going to be what the rest of his journey would be like, then so help him.

 **AN: So it's been a really long time since I posted something on this site. I was going back through my old Pokémon parody story and there was a bit that I was no longer satisfied with, some parts I feel either haven't aged well or could be improved. So I decided to remake it, and hopefully I can finish it in time for the anniversary of when Pokémon came to the U.S. by next year.**

 **The main difference between this version and the previous version is that this one will be less of a parody and more of an adaptation of various parts of** **Pokémon Gen 1 media, combining aspects from the games, Adventures manga and anime.**

 **There will be still humor, and I am thinking of salvaging the jokes I still think work from the previous version, but it will be less of a surreal and overt parody, and more a celebration of the franchise's beginnings while still poking fun at some aspects like many** **Pokémon fan works.**

 **Let me know what you guys think, any kind of criticism is welcome!**


	2. Chapter 2: Crossfire

Chapter 2: Crossfire

Once Red and Blue recovered from their respective humiliations and received five empty pokéballs from the professor, they said their goodbyes to him and now stood outside the lab, with the starters back in _their_ pokéballs.

"Well…" Red said. He didn't really know what to say to a kid he didn't like very much anymore. "I guess I'll see you down the road?"

"If you can even find it," Blue taunted. "Because I'm going to get a map from my sister and tell her not to give you one. Smell ya later!"

Red rolled his eyes as Blue walked off laughing towards his house. He was on good terms with Blue's older sister Daisy, so he highly doubted she wouldn't give him a map just because her little brat of a brother would tell her not to.

In the meantime, Red returned to his own house and showed his mother his new Bulbasaur (while leaving out the part about it giving him a wedgie). Once it met Poli, it seemed to be indifferent despite the Poliwhirl being friendly and welcoming.

After Bulbasaur was returned to its ball, Red's mother ran down the list of things Red was planning to take, making sure they were all accounted for.

"Snacks?"

"Check."

"Sleeping bag?"

"Check."

"Fresh underwear?"

"…check."

Red's mother returned Poli to his ball and handed it to her son.

"Call me when you get to Viridian City, and every city after," she said.

"I will."

Red smiled as his mother engulfed him in one last hug.

"Promise you'll be safe," she said.

"I'll try," Red replied.

After one last goodbye, Red went out the door and made his way to the Oak's residence. When he knocked on the door, a young brunette woman answered.

"Hey Red," Daisy said with a smile. "You came for a town map, right? Blue told me you'd be coming but not to give you one. Like I'm going to listen to him."

Red grinned. "Thanks."

Daisy motioned for Red to come inside, with the latter obliging. She went over to the kitchen table, where a town map lay open.

"So you excited?" she asked.

"Yeah, definitely," Red said. "I'm looking forward to meeting tons of new pokémon."

"You looking forward to meeting any girls too?" Daisy asked with a wink.

Red's eyes widened as he felt his face heat up. "Uh-um…"

Daisy handed him the map, which he took slowly, still slightly caught off guard by the question.

"I'm just teasing," she giggled. "Though I'm sure you'd have no problem in that area."

"…Are you sure you don't have me mixed with someone else?" Red asked.

Daisy responded by giving Red a hug. "I'm sure. Now get out there and be the very best like no one ever was. And beat Blue in a battle for me."

Red grinned. "Alright, but only for you."

Once he left the Oak residence, Red started off on the road to Viridian City, filled with a new sense of purpose. After two hours of walking, Red stopped and sat down once the road cut through some tall grass.

"Okay," Red sighed. He pulled out the map and stared at it. "If this map is to scale, then the city shouldn't be much farther.

He folded the map and placed it back in his pocket. He then unattached the two pokéballs on his belt.

He opened the one in his left hand, which released Bulbasaur.

The pokémon stood in front of its new trainer, staring at him.

"So we kind of got off on the wrong foot," Red said. "I guess you're not used to being around humans, so I can understand why you did what you did."

"Saur," the Bulbasaur said.

"But I want to be your friend," Red said. "So…will you let me?"

Bulbasaur unleashed its vines and had them go towards Red…

"No!" Red reprimanded, lightly slapping the vines away. "We do NOT give people wedgies."

Red paused. "Except maybe Blue."

Bulbasaur tilted its head. It was then Red realized something.

"Wait," Red started. "Is that-is that just your way of playing?"

"Saur," Bulbasaur stated simply.

Red chuckled. "I guess that's a yes, but it could just as easily be a no. Pokéspeak can be tricky like that."

Bulbasaur waddled closer to its trainer. It started sniffing Red's sneakers before nudging his leg affectionately.

"So you're warming up to me," Red said, satisfied. "Then you wouldn't mind if I gave you a nickname?"

Bulbasaur looked up, as if giving its approval.

Red pulled out the pokédex and scrolled through it. "Cool, it shows my current team too! Let's see… it says you're a male so… How about, 'Saur'?"

Bulbasaur tilted his head, so Red explained.

"Well when I was a kid I named Poli based on his evolutionary line, since all three members have the suffix 'Poli-'at the beginning. I guess that could be a girl's name too, but I digress. Your line has the suffix '-Saur' at the end. So, 'Saur'."

"…Bulbasaur," the pokémon nodded, as if saying, "Sure, why not."

"Well you can be a little more enthusiastic," Red said with an amused smirk.

A rustle in the bright green grass attracted the attention of both pokémon and trainer. Red jumped up immediately.

"A wild pokémon!" Red exclaimed.

He looked at Saur. "You know how to fight, right?"

"Saur," the Bulbasaur said, though Red noted the uncertainty in the pokémon's cry.

"Well now's the chance to learn together," Red said, turning his cap backwards.

The rustling grew louder as it inched closer and closer to the duo. Then, a brown and beige bird fluttered out onto the path, its eyes set on Saur.

"Pidgey," Red said to Saur. "Flying-Normal type. Normally, you'd have a disadvantage but I don't think it knows any Flying moves. The Pidgeys brought to the lab at least didn't."

Red pulled out his pokédex to check Saur's movepool.

"Tackle and growl huh?" Red muttered in thought.

But Saur heard what his trainer said, and in response he sprinted towards the bird pokémon.

"Wait, Saur!" Red panicked. "Those weren't commands!"

The Pidgey up a few feet and barely avoiding the attack. Saur growled in response to this and the Pidgey tilted its head as if uncertain to continue fighting.

Curious, Red selected Growl from the movelist and read its effect allowed.

"Reduces the opposing pokémon's attack?" Red asked with brow raised. He figured this must have been one of the status affecting moves he never used in the simulations.

Red closed the pokédex and placed it back in his pocket.

 _I guess attack is the same thing as strength?_ Red thought. _Well, the growl appears to have worked anyway. Now I just need to physically weaken the Pidgey enough to catch it._

The Pidgey rose up further into the air. Once he reached a high enough altitude, it leaned forward and tucked its wings in.

It was going to divebomb Saur!

"Saur, get out of the way!" Red shouted.

Saur unleashed his vines. He pressed them down against the ground, and with one heavy push, the Bulbasaur launched himself up into the air to meet the Pidgey head on.

Which he did, literally.

Both pokémon came back down to the ground with backs to one another, but Saur was the one that landed on his feet. The Pidgey came crashing down, slamming into the ground, becoming a heap of feathers.

"Alright!" Red cheered.

He then got an empty pokéball ready.

"First catch," Red breathed. "You can do this."

With all the might an eleven-year-old can muster, he threw the ball at the downed pokémon. The pokéball opened up above the Pidgey…

Only to close and fly back into a confused Red's hand, the unmoving Pidgey still on the ground.

"…What?"

A ding sound came from Red's pocket. He dug out and opened the pokédex to find an alert waiting for him.

"Wild pokémon unconscious," Red read aloud. "According to Pokémon League Preservation Board regulations, pokémon must remain conscious in order to be caught. Fainted pokémon tend to regain consciousness within an hour but must be given a 24-hour recovery period before one attempts to capture the same pokémon again. Other members of the same species _can_ be caught instead, however."

Red closed the pokédex and looked at the Pidgey, then at Saur, who was staring at him expectantly.

"Sorry buddy," Red said, scratching the back of his neck. "I guess we overdid it."

Another ding came from the pokédex. Red opened it.

"On the plus side, you gained a level," Red said. "…Those are real?"

He then watched as a list of stats scrolled down, showing increases in strength, defense, and special attack and defense. All things he never payed attention to in the simulations.

"Um… most of this is going over my head."

Were these terms and stats invented by battlers? Maybe a pokémon's internal power was divided into these categories, allowing them to use their abilities in these ways?

"Saur."

"Well, my study was biology and behavioral sciences, not battle stuff."

"Saur!"

Red sighed, unsure of what to do next.

It was then a purple rodent scurried out onto the path.

"A Rattata," Red said, gears turning in his head.

He grinned at his Bulbasaur. "Ready to try again?"

Saur grinned back and nodded.

"Alright!" Red exclaimed.

He paused. "But hold back just a little bit, alright?"

"Saur!"

The capture attempt with the Rattata was a success, with the pokéball he used to try and capture the Pidgey working flawlessly. As Red went further along the dirt path, he let out Poli so he could have a turn in helping to catch pokémon as well. Once Red had reached the outskirts of Viridian City, he had captured the aforementioned Rattata, a different Pidgey, and a Spearow. All were scanned by the pokédex, along with Poli, bringing the total count to five entries and five members of his current team.

He had also gotten a free potion from a kind man who worked at the Viridian City Pokémart.

"We also have Antidotes for curing poison statuses, Repels to avoid wild pokémon if need be, and pokéballs if you need to restock on those."

Taking the man at his word, the first thing Red did once he entered the city (after calling his mom at a phone booth) was purchase a few of each of the aforementioned items. He then took his pokémon to the Pokémon Center, in order to heal any of their injuries sustained in battle.

Red was amazed at how the healing machine worked, how it was able to utilize the same power behind the PCs to heal pokémon in their pokéballs almost instantaneously. He thanked the nurse and went over to one of the public PCs to communicate with Professor Oak through its video phone.

"You're already off to a good start," Professor Oak said with a proud smile. "Legally you are only allowed to carry six pokémon in your party at a time, so if you have some you don't need with you at the moment, just use the PC to digitally transport them into a box, and then I'll retrieve them and look after them until you want one or two of them back."

Spotting a cylindrical device implanted onto the side of the PC, Red pulled out the pokéballs containing Rattata and Pidgey. He opened the cylinder's revolving hatch and placed each pokéball in one at a time, watching as each disappeared in a flash of white light.

"So would you like one of each for every evolutionary line?" Red asked. "Or is it ok if I let some evolve all the way to their final stages?"

"Whichever you think would work best. As long as their entries are in the pokédex."

Red grinned. "Okay professor, I'll talk to you again later."

As the PC shut off, Red noticed a pair of kids close to his age playing with a purple male Nidoran and a blue female Nidoran in the waiting area.

"All better now!" the girl said, holding up her Nidoran.

"Ready to battle again?" the boy asked his Nidoran, with the latter nodding in affirmation.

Red approached the two. "Excuse me, but do you know where I can catch a Nidoran like one of those?"

"Yep," the girl replied. "There should be both boy and girl Nidoran out on Route 22, to the left of the city entrance."

Red looked up at the waiting room's green wall clock and saw it was just past noon.

 _Still have time to check it out,_ he thought. _I'll catch some more pokémon and then decide if I want to press on or stay the night._

* * *

Once he found Route 22, Red wasted no time in catching all of the new pokémon he could find, which included both a female and male Nidoran and a Mankey, bringing his team count to six.

Worn out from hours of searching, Red leaned against a tree and wiped the sweat dripping from his forehead. He thought about slumping down for a bit when he heard a familiar voice.

"Red!"

Brows lowering, he turned to his right to see Blue coming down from further up the path.

"So I see you managed to get to Viridian without getting lost," Blue mocked.

"No thanks to you," Red replied scathingly.

Blue ignored him. "So did you think you could go this way to the Indigo Plateau?"

Indigo Plateau? Where the League and the Elite Four were?

"I didn't even know it was this way," Red shrugged. "I just came to catch some pokémon."

"Well you need the eight gym badges to get through the gate anyway," Blue said. "And even then they probably wouldn't let an amateur like _you_ in."

Red glared and pushed himself from the tree, facing his rival. "I'm done with you trying to bait me, Blue. Right now, my only goal is the one your grandfather gave me: Completing the pokédex."

Blue glared back. "And how are you going to do that if your pokémon never get stronger? Because that's what battling _does_ Red. Make you and your pokémon stronger. The same applies to wild pokémon, so what are you going to do if you still have a level 5 or 10 Bulbasaur against a wild level 60 Rhydon?"

"Levels are just numbers," Red argued.

Blue laughed. " _Just_ numbers? How else do you think people are able to know if their pokémon are stronger?"

"Through… the bond we share with them?" Red replied.

"Oh, _wow_. That answer is proof you'll never get anywhere on your journey. You'll be running home to mommy before you even hit the Viridian Forest."

Red clenched his hands into shaking fists. "You're wrong!"

"Then battle me right now," Blue goaded.

Red knew Blue caught him in a catch-22 situation. If he said yes and Blue beat him, he'd never hear the end of it. If he said no, Blue would just call him a coward and he'd never hear the end of that either.

So he would just have to win.

Red smirked. "Okay, you're on."

Blue's eyes widened in surprise. He clearly wasn't expecting that confident of an answer.

His cocky demeanor returned as he unattached a pokéball from his belt. "Alright, Wet-the-Bed Red. League rules: No healing items until after the match, and first person whose team is fully knocked out loses."

"Well I have a full team of six," Red said as he looked at Blue's belt. "Looks to me you only have three."

Blue laughed. "I'm only going to _need_ three to kick _your_ butt."

"Bring it," Red said as jumped away from Blue and got out Saur's ball. "Saur, go!"

"Charmander, I choose you!"

The two starters materialized and adopted battle positions.

"He might have a type advantage," Red called to his pokémon. "But we can beat him."

"We'll see about that," Blue called. "Charmander, Ember!"

Blue's Charmander launched a ball of flame from a swish of its tail. Saur yelped as the flame ball hit him in the face and sent him flying back.

"Saur!" Red called out.

Saur glared at the Charmander, a light burn mark on his forehead.

 _His Charmander already knows a Fire-type move,_ Red thought. _Meanwhile, Saur doesn't know any Grass-type ones. They wouldn't do much, but they'd still be a little helpful…_

Then Red realized something. Saur knew how to use his vines without being told. What if…

"Saur, use your vines to whip Charmander," Red called. " _Vine whip_!"

Saur's vines rose out from the sides of his bulb and lashed out at Charmander, with one striking it across the stomach and another across the face.

Charmander felt the welt across its face with a clawed hand and glared at its old friend.

"Charmander, finish Bulbasaur with another Ember!" Blue called.

"Saur, grab onto the tree and swing around it," Red ordered. "Then launch into Charmander with an airborne tackle!"

"…What?" Blue responded once he processed the complexity of the order.

Charmander launched another Ember.

Saur extended his vines to clutch onto the trunk of a tree and zipped away as the Ember soared past where he once stood, hitting something neither Red nor Blue payed attention to.

Saur did as his trainer commanded and swung around the tree with his vines until he gained enough momentum to become a green and light blue blur.

The Bulbasaur then let go of the tree, flying straight first into Charmander's stomach, knocking the wind out of it.

However, the attack wasn't enough to knock out the Charmander, but Red could tell one more attack may be enough.

But that looked as if it could be true for Saur as well, as he was breathing rather heavily and stumbled slightly from dizziness.

Blue looked worried. "Okay, so you're doing a little better than I thought you would."

Red laughed. "That's high praise coming from you."

Blue smirked. "Though it looks like your Bulbasaur is running out of juice."

"So is your Charmander," Red fired back. "And even then you'll still have to go through five more of my pokémon."

"Not a problem," Blue said with bravado. "Charmander, one more Ember!"

"Saur, Tackle!"

Charmander prepared to swish its tail while Saur pawed at the ground. But before either pokémon could move…

"My Bike!"

The two trainers and two pokémon froze as a shrill voice sliced through the air. All four heads turned to the direction of the voice, which belonged to a red haired girl in a yellow shirt, jean short shorts and red suspenders.

The girl had a look of pure fury on her face, one that made her face seem pointed like a snarling Ninetales. At her feet was a black, melting frame of a bicycle, with a circle of grass around it matching in color.

"What did you two do to my bike?!" the girl shouted at the top of her lungs.

Red was frozen stiff. He had never seen anyone this angry in his life. He had never even seen anyone _furious_. And now there was this strange girl who looked as if she would rip his head off and stomp it into mush if he so much as moved wrong.

Blue, however, gave a quick look at Red before returning his Charmander to its pokéball.

"Hedidit," Blue said without taking a breath.

"Wait, what?!" Red shouted incredulously as he watched Blue run back towards Viridian City.

Red turned back to the now advancing rage girl. He yelped, returned Saur to his ball and began to run for it, pushing his legs faster than he ever thought possible.

But the girl was faster. Next thing Red knew he was face down on the ground with his right arm being twisted behind his back.

"Owowowowowowow!" Red groaned rapidly. "Is the violence really necessary?"

"Do you have any idea how long I saved up for that bike?" the girl shouted. "Only for two idiots to melt it while my back was turned?!"

"Hey, that was all Blue, not me!" Red argued, turning his head. " _He_ had his Charmander launch a stray attack!"

"He was battling _your_ pokémon!"

"Yeah, and Luke Skywalker fought TIE Fighters when he blew up the Death Star!" Red argued. "But no one blamed Darth Vader and the other TIE pilots for that! At least onscreen…"

Red felt his arm be released and the pressure on his back lifted.

"I guess," the girl muttered.

Red stood up and glared at the girl, rubbing his arm.

"Look, I'd be mad too if my bike was destroyed by a complete stranger," Red said. "But what exactly did you hope to accomplish by assaulting me?"

Red noticed that the girl's face changed to that of being apologetic. Less feral and more human, more rounded.

"Sorry," the girl said. "I've… I've been told I have a bit of a temper."

Red scoffed. "Only a bit?"

A spasm of anger glinted in her green eyes. But then she breathed in, as if to calm herself.

"But that other boy," she said. "You know him don't you? Can't you get him to buy me a new bike?"

Red laughed bitterly. "You'd have better luck catching one of the Legendary Birds than get Blue Oak to pay reprimands, much less apologize."

The girl tilted her head. "Oak? Like the professor?"

"Yeah," Red said shortly. "Once he's processed how famous his grandfather was, his head swelled three times its normal size."

"Do you think I could talk to his grandfather and he would get Blue to at least pay me back the bike's cost?"

Red scratched his chin. "Maybe. Blue's a brat but I don't think he would flat out disobey his grandfather."

Red snapped his fingers. "Tell you what. I'll walk with you to the Pokémon Center and contact the professor on the PC so you can talk to him."

The girl paused in consideration. Then she nodded.

"Okay."

She walked up to Red's side and the two made their way back to the city.

"Again, I'm sorry I attacked you," the girl said.

Red waved. "Eh, water under the bridge. I'm sorry the battle led to your bike being melted."

The girl smiled. "Hey, as long as the guy who did it pays me back in some way, it's all good."

Thinking her default expression was angry, Red was surprised by her sudden smile. In fact, he was thinking he liked it and wanted to see it more often.

Red cleared his throat as he began to feel his cheeks burn slightly.

"I'm, uh, Red, by the way."

He held out his hand.

The girl looked at his cheeks. "I can see that."

Red raised an eyebrow before realizing what she meant. "Oh no, um, that's my name."

"Oh!" the girl took Red's hand and shook it.

"Misty," she replied.

Now acquainted, the two began to swap their respective stories as they made their way back down to the city.


	3. Chapter 3: Gotta Eat to Live

Chapter 3: Gotta Eat to Live, Gotta Steal to Eat

"So you're on a journey too?"

Red and Misty were sitting in two dark green armchairs in the waiting area of the Pokémon Center, waiting for the PC to become available for use.

"Something like that," Misty said.

"What made you come this way?" Red asked. "Not to disparage this area or anything but there's not much out here. I was thinking you'd be going towards Celadon or Saffron."

Misty shrugged. "I guess I just wanted to see this area first. Namely, see what kind of Water-type pokémon are around here. They're my favorite."

"Well, it kind of depends on the time of year," Red said, pulling out a pokéball. "For example, when I was really young an entire school of Poliwag were found on Water Route 21, but other times you can find Horsea, Shellder, Krabby…"

Red held out the pokéball for Misty to see. "My mom caught me one of those Poliwag, and now he's a Poliwhirl. He's also my best friend."

"Can I see him?" Misty asked.

Red smiled. "Sure. Come on out Poli!"

The pokéball opened, with Poli materializing in front of Misty.

"Poliwhirl!"

"Aw, he's cute!" Misty said excitedly.

Red scratched his head. "Um, I-I guess..."

Poli gave his trainer a slightly insulted expression.

"Well- I just meant that's not the first thing I think when I see you," Red hastily explained to the pokémon.

"Poliwhirl!" Poli closed his eyes and placed a gloved hand on his swirled chest, mimicking being wounded.

"Well _I_ think you're a very handsome pokémon," Misty assured while scratching between Poli's eyes.

"Poliwhirl," Poli croaked affectionately.

Red rolled his eyes.

"So you must have been battling for a long time if you got your Poliwag to evolve," Misty said, still scratching Poli's head.

"Actually, he evolved in order to save me from drowning when I was five," Red said.

Misty looked at Red in surprise. "Really? Wow, I've heard stories about things like that happening!"

Red grinned. "Yep, Poli will always be a hero to me."

Poli jumped up into his trainer's lap and hugged him in response to this.

Misty then raised her eyebrows. "Wait, so you _haven't_ been in a battle before?"

"Nope," Red said. "That one with Blue was my first."

"So are you going to challenge the gyms?"

Red shrugged. "I dunno."

"What do you _mean_ you don't know?" Misty asked, as if his response was instead about if living beings needed water.

"I mean I don't know," Red repeated. "I wasn't really planning on challenging the Indigo League so why would I go to the gyms?"

"You don't _have_ to challenge the League after challenging the gyms," Misty explained. "Most people just collect as many badges as they can and just stop there."

Red tilted his head. "Really? I always thought once you battle a gym leader you can't stop until you challenge the Elite Four."

"No, otherwise _nobody_ would go to the gyms. A gym's first goal is always to increase the bond between a trainer and their pokémon."

Misty continued. "Besides, the Elite Four challenge is only for the _super_ skilled trainers."

"Well I guess we've had a shortage of those then," Red said. "Not to be demeaning to other trainers, but twelve years without a champion…"

"You can find at least one really skilled trainer if you know where to look," Misty said, staring at Red.

Red caught on quickly and gave a disbelieving scoff. "You're looking in the wrong direction."

"Am I? You clearly have a great bond with your pokémon, which already shows potential as a trainer. Don't you _want_ to strengthen that bond?"

"Well, yeah," Red admitted, scratching the back of his neck. "But I'm just an amateur, I could never battle the Elite Four or get all eight gym badges."

Red sighed. "Now I'm just repeating what Blue told me. But what if he's right? I mean, I could have beaten him with Saur, but what if that was just a fluke? What if I lose every battle from here on out, and these gym leaders tell me I don't have a future in anything?"

"Well," Misty said. "You won't know unless you battle more. I can tell you that the gym leaders will want to help you. They would never believe you have no future."

Poli tugged at his trainer's jacket. Red looked down and was surprised to see something new in the pokémon's eyes; a spark of determination.

 _Poli wants to battle,_ Red realized. _Even though he never has before. He's more confident, excited about it than I ever have been. Am I just being afraid? Selfish even?_

Red grinned. _Well no more. No more of letting Blue put me down. Together, my pokémon and I can accomplish anything! We'll surpass him at battling and work together not just to complete the pokédex, but conquer all the gyms in Kanto!_

"Alright," Red said to Misty. "We'll take on the gyms! I'll become the trainer my pokémon deserve!"

Misty grinned and nodded in approval.

At that moment, Poli jumped down from Red's lap and pointed to the right.

"Hey, the PC's open now," Red said once he looked in that direction.

Red and Misty walked over to the PC. The former, still high on the enthusiasm from his epiphany, quickly typed on the keyboard to pull up the video phone and begin broadcasting a video connection to Professor Oak's PC.

"As soon as the professor knows what happened," Red said happily to Misty. "Blue will come to us with his tail between his legs."

However, when the window opened, instead of an image of Professor Oak popping up, a black box with the green words _Standby_ showed up in its place.

"We're sorry," an automated voice said. "The PC you tried to reach is currently unavailable."

Red raised an eyebrow. "That's weird. It worked earlier."

The boy tried contacting the professor three more times, but received the same response for each.

"Must have had a power outage or something," Red said.

He looked back to see a line was starting to form behind him and Misty.

"I don't want to keep people waiting," Red said.

Misty snapped her fingers. "I just realized something! Blue's probably going to try and challenge the gyms too, right?"

"Yeah, probably."

"So I think he may have gone to the Viridian City one first. If so, we can confront him _and_ get your first gym badge out of the way."

Red shrugged. "Kind of wish we thought of that earlier, but okay. Let's go."

* * *

No matter how much Blue tugged at the handles of the gym's twin doors, they just would not budge.

"I don't get it," he huffed. "You'd think anybody would just be able to walk in."

He scanned the front of the light brown-roofed building for any sign of an intercom. Maybe they would let him in if he was able to tell them that he was the grandson of the great Professor Oak, whom he would tell that he wasn't being given the respect he deserves.

 _What's the good of all that training I've received if I can't use it?_ Blue thought. _My pokémon need to be in top shape if I want to have any shot at becoming champion, and if I can't train_ them _, we're never gonna get anywhere. I'll just be like Red._

Blue had to admit, he was caught off-guard by how Red was able to handle himself in that battle. That spinning Bulbasaur strategy was… unpredictable.

How could someone with no experience in real battling come up with a command like that? And why would a pokémon Red just received go along with it despite its riskiness?

 _He got lucky, that's all,_ Blue thought. _If he tries that trick again, I'll just have to come up with a way to make sure it won't work anymore. Besides, it's not like he actually beat me._

Though he was annoyed that the girl had to interrupt the battle. It's not like he _meant_ to have Charmander destroy her bike. It just happened to be there. If he ran into her again and she started yelling about it, he'll just tell her to go-

"This way Red!" the girl's voice shouted.

Blue yelped and ran around to the gym's side to hide. She didn't see him, right?

As he pressed himself against the wall, he listened in as Red began talking to the girl.

"Alright," he heard Red said. "First badge, here I come."

Blue smirked as he listened to Red's doomed attempts to open the doors.

"Why is it locked?"

"What makes you think I would know?" the girl said.

"Well, you're the one who told me this gym was even here."

"Hey, I'm just as confused as you are."

"Can I help you two with something?" a third, elderly, voice asked.

"Do you know why the gym's locked?" Red asked.

"The gym leader kind of just comes and goes. Sometimes he's there and the doors are unlocked, but most of the time no one's home."

"Well _that's_ inconvenient," Red said with an irritated tone. "Why not appoint an interim leader or something?"

"He has a reputation of only wanting to battle trainers that interest him," Blue heard the old man say.

"So in other words, no newbies allowed," Red summed up.

Blue's fists clenched. _Him,_ Blue Oak? Be considered a newbie? On _Red's_ level?

"Wait, how would he know what trainers would interest him if he's never here?" the girl asked.

"Guess you just have to build up a reputation," the old man replied, "through news or word of mouth."

As Blue listened to footsteps gradually becoming softer, he heard Red sighed.

"Oh well. Where's the next closest gym?"

"Pewter City," the girl answered. "On the other side of Viridian Forest."

"That's probably where Blue ended up going. Alright, let's go."

"Now? Don't you want to find a place to spend the night?"

"I'm fine with sleeping in the forest. Plus I kind of want to avoid spending too much money on hotels unless I really have to stay in one."

A foot shifted against the grass.

"If _you_ really want to stay in a hotel we can."

"N-no, the forest is fine," the girl said, though Blue noted a bit of unease in her response.

"You sure, Misty?"

"I'm sure," the girl, who must have been Misty, responded with finality "I have a sleeping bag".

"Okay then," Red said. "Off we go."

Once he heard footsteps carry off, Blue crept up to the corner and looked from behind to see Red and the red haired girl walking off in the direction of the forest.

 _Red, challenging the gyms?_ Blue thought. _That dork is one of the least ambitious people I know. Now just because he almost, ALMOST beat one of my pokémon, he thinks he can upstage me?_

Blue pulled out a pokéball. _Well, I'm just going to have to get to all the gyms before him then. Good thing Gramps' assistant before Red told me about that shortcut by Route 2._

He opened the pokéball, and a green bipedal insect-like pokémon with two blades for arms materialized.

"Scyther!" it said with a grin.

"Hey," Blue said, finding comfort in the presence of his first pokémon. "There's a couple of bushes up ahead with your name on them…"

* * *

Red found out quickly why Misty was reluctant to go into the forest.

Not because the dense foliage made it darker and only getting worse with the coming evening. Not because of its size and how long it could potentially take to navigate. Not even because of the repetitive feeling of being watched (which with wild pokémon about was very likely).

Red pinched the bridge of his nose. "Please tell me this is your bad idea of a joke."

Misty stood frozen in fear and disgust. "No, I'm serious! Get that thing away from me!"

"I can understand you being afraid of bugs," Red said reasonably. "Entomophobia is a common fear."

His voice increased in volume the more he spoke. "I can understand you being afraid of a Beedrill, or a Venomoth, or a Pinsir."

Red then waved his hand in front of him and asked in incredulity, "But a CATERPIE?!"

The Worm Pokémon had hardly moved from the moment it came out from hiding behind the bushes. All it was doing was stare at Misty, but the latter reacted as if instead of a Caterpie it was a Xenomorph toying with its prey. Of course, there are multiple differences between a Caterpie and the classic sci-fi horror creature, but the most pressing difference (and the one that meant the difference between life and death) was that the former barely reached Misty's ankle in height.

It also lacked a bladed tail, second inner jaw and acid blood and can't be born through chestbursting but that's neither here nor there.

Red sighed as he pulled out an empty pokéball. "As much as you have riding on this _intense_ staring contest, it's gonna have to end. I need to catch this Caterpie."

"Ew! Why?!"

"What do you mean why? I need to catch every pokémon in the region to complete the pokédex. Pretty sure I told you that."

Red simply tossed the ball at Caterpie, and within three seconds the pokéball clicked, symbolizing the success of the capture.

Red picked up the pokéball and scanned it with his pokédex. "Cool, this one's actually close to evolving into a Metapod!"

Misty shivered in disgust. "I don't care what it evolves into as long as you keep it away from me."

Red smirked mischievously and said in a singsong manner, "Well, _somebody's_ going to be surprised by the sleeping arrangements…"

Misty glared. "Put that thing in my sleeping bag and I'll punch you."

Seeing the fiery glint in her eyes, Red backed down from his joke with a small "eep".

Calming down, Misty looked up at the orange patch of sky that peeked through the forest canopy. "It is getting dark though. Maybe we should camp out here."

Red shrugged. "Fine by me. You want to start a fire?"

"You know how to light a fire?" Misty asked, impressed.

"No. I asked if _you_ wanted to light a fire," Red said as he began to look for twigs on the ground. "I sure don't know how."

Misty rolled her eyes and gave a reluctant chuckle. "Well one of us has to I guess. But watch, so you can do it next time."

Once night had fallen, Red and Misty sat at a modest campfire, each on opposite sides and sitting on rocks they had found and moved over to their campsite.

The meal the two shared was also modest; pooling together their resources, they were able to make toasted sandwiches with bread Misty had and beef jerky Red had.

"You know, I like this," Red said before taking a bite of his second sandwich.

"Camping?" Misty asked as swiftly swiped her hands against one another to wipe off any residing crumbs.

Red finished chewing his bite and then swallowed to answer. "Yeah. It's nice being outdoors. Cool night breeze with a warm fire to keep it from being too cold, the sounds of nature…"

Red smiled. "And I get to enjoy it all with a new friend."

Misty smiled back. "Thanks. It's actually nice to have company when camping out for once. Not as fun when you're alone."

"Either way," Red said. "Despite first impressions being… less than favorable on both sides, I am glad I met you Misty."

"Same," Misty said, looking down slightly to hide a light blush.

She then looked around. "Still though, it's kind of creepy out here, at least at night. Doesn't it kind of feel like we're being watched?"

"We probably are," Red said as he reached for his backpack and pulled out a couple of water bottles. "Statistically speaking there's bound to be _some_ wild pokémon awake right now, and will naturally be curious when they catch scent of the fire, burning or smoldering."

He handed Misty one of the bottles, who accepted it and offered thanks.

"Still though," Misty said. "You think we should take watch or something? I mean, nothing happened to me while I was sleeping outside before, but you never know."

Red shrugged. "If you want. I can take the first-"

Just then two of the pokéballs on his belt emitted a white light that caused Saur and Poli to materialize.

"Bulbasaur!" Saur said eagerly.

"Poliwhirl," Poli said in agreement.

Misty understood. "I think they want to take watch themselves."

Red scratched his head as he looked back and forth between his pokémon. "Are you sure guys? I mean, you need sleep too…"

"Saur!" Saur nodded, mind made up.

"To be fair, they can take turns sleeping through the night and catch up on sleep when in their pokéballs," Misty pointed out.

Red took this into consideration and nodded. "Alright Poli and Saur. You can keep watch."

Saur grinned and Poli used a gloved hand to give a thumbs up.

* * *

Once the two humans were asleep, Poli stretched his little arms while Saur stared at the fire that was slowly beginning to die.

{I'm not really tired yet,} Poli said in the language only pokemon could fully understand. {So I'm going to take first watch if you want to sleep}.

{Nah,} Saur said back. {I'm not sleepy yet either.}

Poli plopped down on the ground next to his fellow pokémon.

{So,} Poli started. {How do you like having a trainer so far?}

Saur tilted his head. {I guess he's starting to grow on me. Honestly I'm gladder he's not still sore about the wedgie.}

{You gave him a wedgie?} Poli asked in surprise. {What kind of pokémon does that?!}

Saur gave a cheeky grin. {I do.}

{Why?}

{Because it's fun. Though he did tell me not to do it anymore unless it was to that Blue guy.}

Saur turned his attention away from the fire. {Speaking of which, has that kid always been a jerk? Me, Charmander and Squirtle only got to the lab last night so…}

{I think it wasn't always like that} Poli said. {They did used to play together.}

{What happened?}

Poli shrugged. {Beats me. Humans can be confusing sometimes.}

{Yeah like that girl. She kind of scares me.}

{She's not too bad.}

{Well of course _you'd_ think that, she called you cute,} Saur said, rolling his eyes.

{How do you-}

{Those pokéballs aren't sound proof.}

{Oh. Right.}

The two pokémon sat in silence for a few minutes.

{So that Indiana League-}Saur started.

{Indigo,} Poli corrected.

{Whatever. Do you think we can make that?}

{If Red thinks we can,} Poli answered. {And wants to do more than just those gym things they mentioned.}

{I hope we can,} Saur said excitedly. {That battle I had with Charmander? I never felt more alive! I wanna battle tougher pokémon and get stronger!}

{I still haven't been in a battle,} Poli muttered.

{What about when we caught those other guys?}

{Those don't count.}

Saur smiled at his new friend. {Well I'm sure you'll get the chance soon. Red's going to need us.}

Poli's eyes glinted with excitement. But before he could respond, the sound of a branch snapping echoed through the woods.

{What was that?} Saur said, alert.

{It came from there!} Poli said, pointing at a bush.

The bush rustled as Saur and Poli got into their respective battle stances.

Suddenly, a creature busted out from the foliage.

Expecting a horrifying monster, Saur and Poli instead found themselves face to face with some small, yellow and furry pokémon.

{What is _that_?} Poli asked.

{I don't know,} Saur said with a glare. {But it's cute and I hate it.}

{But Misty said _I_ was cute,} Poli said in a hurt tone.

{I meant like a manipulative sort of cute,} Saur said. {Like this thing will eat us if we let our guard down.}

The yellow thing scratched one of the two red dots on its cheeks with its foot.

{I don't eat pokémon, stupid!} it said mockingly. {But I do need _something_ to eat. Can you hook a brother up?}

{No, we don't have anything,} Saur said, annoyed. {Go, I dunno, eat berries or something. Preferably the kind that give you the runs.}

The yellow thing sniffed the air. It then ran off to where Red was sleeping and began foraging through his backpack.

{Hey!} Poli called out.

The yellow thing looked out from the pack and glared at Poli, its cheeks sparking electricity.

Poli immediately backed away, allowing the yellow creature to continue searching through the backpack.

{Poli!} Saur exclaimed. {What's wrong? We can't let that fur ball steal Red's food!}

{Bbbut I'm not good against that shocky stuff coming out of it,} Poli said apprehensively.

Saur rolled his eyes. He then launched his vines against the would-be thief.

But the yellow creature was quick, and zipped away from the backpack and the oncoming vines, running off towards the trees with a still wrapped energy bar in its mouth.

{Oh no you don't!} Saur growled as he bolted after the thing.

The creature limbed up the tree and looked down at Saur in mischief.

{Can't get me up here!} it teased.

Saur responded by launching his vines and grabbing the branch the creature was on.

{…Uh oh,} the thing muttered worriedly.

It then jumped to another tree branch as Saur broke off the one it stood upon. Jumping from branch to branch, the creature felt proud of itself for its speed.

That was before it looked back and found the Bulbasaur was swinging after it on his vines.

The creature growled. It never had this much resistance getting food before. Maybe he should have just stuck with the usual berries. But he deserved to treat himself dang it!

Meanwhile, Saur was trying to figure out what he could do to take down the creature.

 _There has to be something I can do,_ Saur thought. _I remember there being something my parents would do involving releasing pollen or … powder stuff that would stun, poison or make pokémon fall asleep. Maybe I can do that._

Once Saur's vines latched onto the next branch, he swung into an arc and launched himself into the air in front of the ongoing creature.

 _Come on, please work,_ Saur thought.

Concentrating with all effort, Saur launched two or three yellow spores from his green bulb.

The spores then hit the creature directly while in midair.

The creature screamed as it plummeted towards the forest floor.

Then, it found itself stopping with a jerk.

The creature looked up to see Saur had caught it with one vine while lowering itself from a tree branch with another.

Gratefulness for being saved was quickly replaced with fear as the creature realized it was now caught. The creature struggled against the vine as Saur navigated through the forest back to the campsite, with Poli there to greet them.

{Red and Misty are still asleep,} Poli said. {Sorry I wasn't much help. And for getting scared}.

{No worries,} Saur said, as it set the still entangled creature on the ground. {Someone had to watch over the trainers and make sure nothing else happened. Besides, I feel the same way about fire and birds.}

{But you still fought them.}

Saur smiled. {Hey, you'll get another chance soon. Don't beat yourself up.}

Saur then glared at the yellow creature. {Now we just need to wait for Red to wake up so he can decide what to do with _you_.}

The creature gulped.

* * *

Once Red wiped the sleep from his eyes, he found an interesting sight before him.

Saur was proudly displaying a yellow rodent in its vines while Poli was standing beside him, equally proud.

"Pika!" the rodent shouted.

"A Pikachu," Red said. "Those are supposed to be really rare around here. And you guys caught one?"

Saur and Poli nodded. The latter tossed a shiny object at his trainer's feet.

Red picked it up and recognized it as one of the energy bars he packed. He then quickly put together what happened.

"So you guys foiled a robbery then," Red chuckled.

He then petted both of his pokémon. "Good job."

The Pikachu was still struggling in Saur's vines.

Red frowned slightly. He was starting to feel a little bad for the Electric Mouse.

"Hey," Red said, addressing the Pikachu. "I get why you tried to do that, so no hard feelings."

The Pikachu stopped struggling and looked at Red with curiosity.

"I _do_ need to catch a Pikachu though," Red said. "So I'll give you a choice. You can come with us and not have to worry about finding enough food anymore, or I can let you go and try to catch a different Pikachu. What do you say?"

Saur shook his head and Poli waved his hands, both frantically to show how opposed they were to their trainer's idea.

The Pikachu tilted its head up as if to ponder its options. It then grinned and nodded.

"Pika-chu!"

Red pulled out a pokéball. "Alright then, welcome to the team!"

He threw the ball at Pikachu, only for it to bounce off and the pokemon to look at him confusedly.

"What?"

Red tried getting the Pikachu to get into the pokéball a few more times, with the Electric Mouse becoming more and more irritated.

"Get," Red said frustrated with each throw. "In. The. Dang. Ball!"

Finally having enough, the Pikachu emitted static from its cheeks.

"PiiiikkkaaaCHUUUUUU!"

The rodent unleashed an electric shock that engulfed Red, Saur and Poli, all shouting in surprise and pain.

Once all three fell over, singed, the Pikachu untangled itself from Saur's now twitching vines and strutted over to Red, whose entire body was twitching.

It then snatched the energy bar in Red's hand and made its way to the now dead campfire. It sat on the rock Red used the previous night and began trying to open the wrapper with its teeth.

It was at that moment Misty stirred.

"Is someone cooking something?" she asked as she sat up from her sleeping bag and stretched.

After rubbing her eyes, she caught sight of the Pikachu.

"Oh!" Misty said with a smile. "Hey little guy. You lost?"

Pikachu looked down at the energy bar in its paws and pointed it towards Misty.

"You want me to open that for you?"

"Pika!"

Misty accepted the bar, tore off and peeled the top of the wrapping to expose the energy bar, and handed the snack back to the pokémon.

"Here you go," Misty said.

The Pikachu took the bar back and happily began munching on it.

Misty then heard a groan. She turned around to see Red and his pokémon lying on the ground, occasional shocks of electricity coursing across the tangle of bodies.

"Oh my gosh!" Misty exclaimed. "Are you guys okay?"

Red raised his head slowly, with effort. "Misty. Please reach into my backpack for my pokédex and scan that...that…"

"Pikachu?" Misty finished.

"Little turd, yes," Red answered.

As if to mock his new trainer, Pikachu cooed in the most adorable manner it could.


	4. Chapter 4: The Witch of Viridian Forest

Chapter 4: The Witch of Viridian Forest

Red spent most of the morning glaring at what was supposed to be his latest catch.

He was waiting for Misty to finish packing the rest of her things, and in the meantime the Pikachu looked around, acting completely innocent when Red knew he was anything but.

Red and his pokémon recovered from their earlier shocks, but the experience left a bitter taste in the former's mouth.

Once Misty was ready, the two set off through the remainder of the forest, with the Pikachu trotting ahead.

"A pokémon that agrees to go with you but refuses to go in a pokéball," Red muttered. "How often does something like that happen?"

"Not often," Misty replied. "But at least he's not running away."

"Only because I promised him free food," Red grumbled. "Which I'm now regretting."

"He can still come to like you and be nicer to you," Misty said. "Just give it a little time."

Red shrugged.

"You thought of a nickname for him?"

Red opened his mouth.

"That _doesn't_ involve dirty language?" Misty sighed.

Red closed his mouth.

"What about Wally?" Misty suggested.

Red raised an eyebrow. "Wally?"

"You know, like Wally West. The Flash?"

"Oh!" Red said once he remembered the reference. "I dunno, maybe. I do kind of have an already planned out naming system though, based on suffixes in the pokémon's species names, but I'll think about it."

Red looked over at Misty. "I'm more surprised that you mentioned the Wally West Flash though."

Misty raised an eyebrow. "Why? Girls can't read comics?"

"Of course they can, anybody who thinks they can't is stupid," Red said. "I just meant most people with a passing knowledge of the Flash just assume you're talking about Barry Allen and don't know he died in _Crisis on Infinite Earths_."

"That reminds me," Misty said. "Have you read the _Return of Barry Allen_ storyline?"

"Yeah, that one's awesome!" Red said excitedly. "And I think how they handled that concept was really clever."

"Yeah," Misty agreed. "It really allowed Wally to come into his own as the Flash. It would stink if they actually copped out and brought Barry back."

"Yeah, not that I hate Barry Allen, but it would be kind of insulting to his sacrifice and Wally's character if Barry was brought back for real."

The two carried on their conversation about comics when they eventually came across another trainer; a boy slightly younger than both Red and Misty.

"Hi there," the boy greeted.

"Hi," Red greeted back. "You looking for pokémon out here too?"

"Yeah," the boy said. "I found a couple of Bug-types and have been training up my Rattata and Pidgey."

The youngster then noticed Pikachu. "Is that your Pikachu?"

"Well he eats my food and won't leave, so by that definition…" Red shrugged.

"Has it been in a battle yet?"

"No," Red answered with a grin. "Why, are you challenging me to one?"

The boy grinned back. "Maybe."

He then grabbed a pokéball. "Can it be one on one though? I'm kind of just starting out."

"No problem, so am I," Red said as got out Poli's pokéball. "You won't mind if I use a different pokémon from Pikachu?"

The youngster shrugged. "Your pokémon, your choice."

Pikachu jumped up onto Misty's shoulder, watching Red and the youngster with curious interest.

"Poli, go!"

"Come on, Rattata!"

Both trainers threw their pokéballs, and each pokémon adopted a battle stance once released.

Red checked his pokédex to see what moves Poli knew.

"What's that?" the youngster asked.

"A pokédex," Red explained. "It's a device that gives you information on a pokémon, like its attacks."

He held it out. "You want to use it real quick?"

"Nah," the youngster said. "I know what my Rattata's moves are. Thanks, though."

"Okay then," Red grinned. "Ready when you are."

"Rattata, Quick Attack!"

The purple Mouse Pokémon darted across to Poli and hit him before the latter could even react.

"Poli, use Bubble!" Red called.

Before the Rattata could retreat back to its trainer's side, Poli unleashed a stream of bubbles from the swirl on its stomach, which managed to hit the Mouse Pokémon and knock it down.

The Rattata quickly jumped back onto its feet, ready for its trainer's next command.

"Rattata, use Tail Whip!"

Rattata swiped its tail in the air, creating an energy wave that hit Poli, but didn't seem to inflict damage.

"What does that do again?" Red asked.

"It decreases a pokémon's defense," the youngster said. "Or makes it more vulnerable to attacks."

Red pondered his course of action. _Bubble is the only move Poli knows right now since he evolved so early. I remember Professor Oak telling me that moves that match a pokémon's typing tend to be more powerful when used compared to moves of other typing. It's risky, but I'm just going to have to hope he uses Tail Whip twice in a row and leaves himself open to attacks, especially since I'm not sure how much Poli can actually take after this guy used it once._

Granted, Red remembered that Water type pokémon are quite durable so he may not have much to worry about. But not much is not the same as nothing.

"Poli, use Bubble again!"

The Rattata began running around the area. Poli chased it around, firing Bubble attacks until one stream managed to hit the Mouse Pokémon.

The Rattata began breathing heavily. Just one more hit…

"Rattata, Quick Attack!"

Uh oh. "Poli, Bubble!"

The Rattata rushed at Poli just as quickly as before…

But this time, Poli was able to just as quickly roll out of the way and repel the pokémon with Bubble.

The attack sent the Rattata back. It landed on its feet, but collapsed in a matter of seconds.

Red's eyes widened. That was his first true, uninterrupted battle. And he _won_.

"Good job, Rattata," the youngster said as he returned the pokemon to its ball.

He then walked up to Red and shook the latter's hand with a smile. "You're really good."

Red scratched his neck embarrassedly. "Well…"

"No really, you're connected to your pokémon. Keep it up."

The youngster waved as he began to walk up ahead. "I'm gonna go heal my Rattata. Be safe, and watch out for the witch!"

Red and Misty raised eyebrows.

"The what?" both asked.

The youngster chuckled. "Sorry, I thought you guys knew. Rumors have been going around that a witch with strange powers lives in the Viridian Forest. Nobody's seen anything though, so I was just teasing. Anyway, see ya!"

Red and Misty waved, and once the boy was gone, began talking to one another, with Pikachu listening from Misty's shoulder and Poli from beside his trainer.

"A witch?" Red asked. "That sounds kind of creepy."

"Do you think it's true?" Misty asked.

Red shrugged. "We live in a world where we can capture departed souls and have them battle alongside us in addition to dragons, leviathans and unicorns with manes of fire. I'm pretty open minded."

"I guess when you put it like that…" Misty said.

"We should get going," Red said. "Pewter City shouldn't be much farther."

* * *

The two began traversed through more of the forest, with Red catching a Weedle and Kakuna (to Misty's horror) and being challenged by other trainers to battles. Red won each of them, with Pikachu continuing to watch from atop Misty's shoulder, studying the art of battle.

Misty got involved in a few battles as well, which is how Red got the opportunity to see the pokémon she had with her; a Staryu and a Goldeen.

"You _are_ pretty good for someone who's just starting out," Misty said as Red waved goodbye to a bug catcher he defeated.

Red shrugged. "Well it's mostly thanks to my pokémon. Plus it's just going to get harder from here on out."

Misty gently nudged Red "C'mon. It's okay to have a _little_ pride in yourself."

Red grinned. "Well, I admit it does feel good to be proving Blue wrong so far."

Pikachu, who had switched back to trotting on the ground, perked his ears.

"What's up?" Misty asked the Electric Mouse.

"Pika-pi!" the Pikachu cried as it motioned for the trainers to follow him through the bushes.

The trainers obliged, and after a few minutes, eventually found themselves at the edge of a pond.

Clean, clear water stretched about twenty feet within an oval, with the occasional rock and bunches of bulrushes on opposite banks.

A little girl sat on one of these rocks, fishing rod in hand with line submerged, and a Rattata at her side. The girl wore a black long sleeved shirt and pants underneath a yellow dress, and smiled as she dipped her bare toes into the pond while waiting for something to bite at the line's hook.

"I guess you must have heard her casting the fishing line," Misty said to the Pikachu, who nodded. "Maybe we can ask her how close we are to exiting the forest."

Misty and Pikachu began to head over to the girl, but Red stayed put.

"Red?" Misty asked.

"Uh-," Red choked. "Y-you go ahead, I'm fine here."

Misty's expression became concerned. "What's wrong?"

Red let out an unconvincing chuckle. "Wrong? Nothing's wrong, no. Uh, Just uh-Just um… I like this spot."

"You like that spot?"

"Yeah, it's a good spot. Good to stand in. Just love standing here, heh-heh. Standing completely and unblinkingly still."

The more Red talked, the more his voice strained, and the more his eyes kept darting to the pond.

Misty's eyes widened in understanding as she put the pieces together.

"You're afraid of the water," she said.

Red's eyes widened. "What? No, no I'm not _afraid_ of water."

Misty raised an eyebrow.

Red scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I mean, I'm not afraid of getting wet, I can take showers and stuff. It's just _bodies_ of water, you know? Seeing people in water. _Being_ in nothing but water."

Red then looked down, as if ashamed.

It was then Misty remembered what Red told her the day before, about how he almost drowned when he was five. That must have been the cause of his fear, and he was clearly not over it after all these years. And as someone who loved being in the water, the thought of being afraid of it seemed alien to her.

The thought of wanting to help a friend, however, wasn't.

"Hey," Misty said as she walked up to Red and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Admitting you're afraid already makes you ten times braver. And I promise that you're not going to drown on my watch. Okay? If the fear gets to be too much, I'll be there to protect you."

Red looked up at Misty, and after about a minute, gave a small smile.

"Thanks," he said.

"Just be glad I didn't make sarcastic responses about your fear like you did with me and your Caterpie," Misty winked.

"Yeah that was kind of jerkish," Red agreed. "Sorry."

"Water under the bridge," Misty said with a smile.

Red, Misty and Pikachu made their way around the pond to the girl fishing on the rock, with Red positioning himself on Misty's right away from the water, a look of apprehension still apparent in his features. The girl had appeared to not have heard them the whole time, as she was humming to herself and staring off into space. The Rattata, however, looked at the newcomers with a head tilted in interest.

"Hi!" Red greeted.

The girl yelped in surprise. Losing her balance on the edge of the rock she sat on, the girl waved her arms trying to regain said balance.

A big splash into the water indicated failure in that endeavor.

Red froze in fear and shock at the sight of the girl in the water, images of himself trying to stay above rising tides rushing back to his head.

 _Help! Someone! Poli! Mommy!_

"Red? Red!"

Red jolted his head as he felt a familiar hand return to his shoulder.

"Huh-what?"

Misty was once more looking at him with concern while the little girl was wringing out her now damp blonde hair.

Red remembered immediately what just happened.

"Oh, um, sorry."

He noticed Misty's hand hadn't moved.

"I'm fine," Red whispered, throwing in a reassuring smile.

Misty drew her hand back slowly, not entirely convinced.

The little girl smiled. "It's okay, it was kind of getting humid anyway."

Red raised an eyebrow at that. He was tempted to point out how he thought the forest actually felt a little cool.

Unless she had a fever, but the girl didn't seem to show any symptoms of that.

"Anyway," Red started. "I'm Red, and this is Misty."

"I'm Yellow," the girl replied.

The girl then cocked her head to the side, as if she just heard something.

"Are your pokémon okay?" Yellow asked.

Red looked down at the pokéballs on his belt. "Well, they have seen a few battles today."

"Can you let them all out please?"

Yellow turned to Misty. "Yours too?"

Red and Misty exchanged puzzled glances, but unattached each pokéball on their respective persons and let out each of their pokémon.

Saur, Poli, and Red's female Nidoran lined up in front of him, with Pikachu deciding to join them. Meanwhile Misty's Staryu and Goldeen stood (or in Goldeen's case, laid on its belly) in front of her.

Yellow rubbed her hands together and started at the end of the line with Saur, who was hesitant to her approaching him.

"It's okay," Yellow said soothingly.

Saur sniffed at the stranger and allowed her to touch his forehead.

Then, to Red and Misty's shock, the little girl's hands began to glow in her namesake color. The glowing lasted almost a minute, and after it subsided and Yellow drew her hands back, Saur was grinning and appeared to be jumpy with energy.

Yellow continued going down the line, with each pokémon becoming just as refreshed and energetic as Saur.

"There, all better," Yellow said with satisfaction.

Red pulled out his pokédex and pointed it at his pokémon. It showed that each of their health was fully restored, along with the energy used for their power moves.

"How…" Red started.

"How did you do that?" Misty asked completely.

"I don't know," Yellow shrugged as the Rattata came up beside her. "When I was littler, I found out I can make tired and sick pokémon better again, so I've been doing that with every pokémon I meet."

"That's amazing," Red and Misty said at the same time.

They also mentally came to the same conclusion; this was the so called "witch" the youngster mentioned. But they imagined a creepy and cackling crone, not a happy and kind little girl.

"Your Pikachu's wondering when he's going to get more free food," Yellow said.

Red looked down at the Pikachu, who was now looking at him as if to say, _Yeah, what she said._

"I can also tele-telepuh-, I know this one…"

"Telepathically?" Misty suggested.

"Yeah, _telepathically_ talk to pokémon," Yellow said. "With my mind. But I guess that's what telepathically means, right?"

It was at that moment Red's stomach chose to announce its presence with a growl.

"Well you don't need telepathy to know what _he's_ thinking," Misty giggled.

"I can take you guys back to my uncle's cabin," Yellow suggested. "We usually make lunch soon."

He looked down at the Pikachu.

 _Guess we really aren't so different,_ Red thought with a smirk.

"That sounds great," Misty nodded. "Thank you. Do you think afterwards you could tell us how much farther Pewter City is?"

"The cabin is actually real close to the northern edge of the forest," Yellow explained. "Then you just have to take Route 2."

Yellow picked up her fallen fishing rod as the Rattata jumped up on her shoulders.

"But first, lunch!" she said happily.

As Yellow led the way, Red chuckled.

"I feel like we're just waiting for her to reveal she's Yoda now," Red joked.

Yellow turned her head back. "Who?"

"Yoda? From _Star Wars_?"

"What's that?"

Red's jaw dropped. "Hoo-boy."

The party of seven pokémon and three humans trailed off, unaware that they were being watched by a group of four behind the bushes.

The man at the forefront, clad in black garb with a bright red R on his shirt and ear length neon blue hair covered by a black cap, smirked maliciously.

"You saw that, recruits?" he asked in a cold whisper. "A Pokémon Center walking on two legs. Guess that intel _was_ worth somethin' after all."

The man approached the three same clothed men behind him. "Your first mission as full-fledged members of Team Rocket, is to grab that girl and take her back to the boss, kicking and screaming."

"Is _not_ kicking and screaming an option?" one asked.

"Only if you have chloroform or know how to use a good smack on the head," the blue haired man smirked.

The man's smirk faded. "But let's get somethin' straight. I hate bein' on babysittin' duty. So I'm gonna leave this _all_ up to you guys. If you screw this up…"

The man picked up a fallen branch as his smirk returned.

"Well, the boss also gave me the power to decide how to _respond_ to possible screw-ups."

He lifted his knee and split the branch across it with a very audible crack.

The three recruits gulped.

"Now then," the man said as he tossed the pieces of the branch aside. "Are your orders clear?"

"Yes Executive Proton, sir!" the three shouted in unison while saluting.

"Good," Proton smirked. "Now get going."

* * *

At the small log cabin, Red and Misty watched amazed as Yellow completely took the kitchen over and was now preparing the meal at what appeared to be superhuman speed.

Wilton, a dark haired fisherman and Yellow's Uncle, chuckled as he and his niece's guests sat at the kitchen table, cups of tea in front of each.

Red and Misty's pokémon, meanwhile, were sitting on the floor besides Yellow's Rattata eating homemade pokémon food out of several bowls.

"I've been teaching her how to cook the past couple of years," he explained. "Looks like the student is finally surpassing the teacher."

Yellow went from pan to pan spread out on the stove, flipping the contents of both and shaking a spice canister into one on occasion. Nothing could break her concentration.

"Can you two cook?" Wilton asked Red and Misty.

"A little," Misty said before sipping from her cup.

"I can make sandwiches," Red shrugged.

"Well it's a useful skill to have on the road," Wilton said. "And people in all kinds of groups can take turns doing it; families, friends, even couples."

He scratched the side of his head. "Though you two look a little young to be traveling together as one."

At this, Misty spat her tea in a stream off to the side in surprise. Red, who happened to be in Misty's line of fire, stared in shock and ignored how his cap now soaked in tea.

"Wh-wh-what?" Red stuttered.

"Yeah, we're not a couple!" Misty protested.

Wilton raised his hands and chuckled. "Hey, I'm just joking you two."

The two's expressions became sheepish.

"…Oh," Misty said quietly.

"I knew that," Red said quickly as he took off his cap and got up to wring the tea out of it and into the sink.

"So," Misty began, wanting to change the subject. "You've been raising Yellow?"

"All her life," Wilton nodded. "My brother was her father, and he and her mother left her with me shortly after she was born. I never heard from them again."

"I'm sorry," Misty said, eyes darting to the side.

Wilton shrugged. "Well, I've been trying to raise Yellow the best I could in the meantime. Once her powers kicked in, she mastered them in no time. I know she can make a difference, but these powers may make her a target for people that want to exploit them, and I fear for her. Still, I want her to see the world beyond this forest."

He sipped his tea cup. "I dunno, I guess that's what every parent and guardian feels. They want their kids to see everything but also want to protect them from the darker stuff."

Misty's eyes widened as she was struck by a sudden thought. "What if Yellow came with Red and I?"

Red came back from the sink with his hat now clean and resting back on his head.

"What now?" Red asked, sitting back down and just now getting into the conversation.

"Red's planning on challenging the gyms and catching all 149 pokémon for Professor Oak," Misty explained. "I'm trying to get a guy to pay me back for destroying my bike. We can take Yellow with us and she can use that opportunity to meet new people and put her abilities to good use for whoever needs them."

Wilton scratched his chin in thought. "Maybe. Let's ask Yellow. That kind of decision is ultimately hers to make-"

"Lunch time!" Yellow exclaimed as she juggled four plates of stir fried vegetables over rice towards the table. Each portion on each plate still steamed and glistened with a glaze of soy sauce.

After distributing the dishes, the four began to eat, with Red and Misty being impressed with the quality of Yellow's cooking. After they had chatted for a little while about Wilton's fishing job and how Viridian City Hall had blocked three attempts to chop down the forest (to which Wilton added "thankfully"), Misty decided to finally ask Yellow if she would like to travel with her and Red.

But before she could, a knock on the door echoed through the cabin.

"Huh," Wilton said with a brow raised. "Not many people come knocking around here."

He got up from the table and approached the front door.

"Who is it?" Wilton asked.

A silent pause filled the air.

"Um… special delivery?" a hopeful voice answered.

"…I didn't order anything," Wilton said, suspicious. "Yellow, did you order anything using the PC?"

"No, Uncle Wilton," Yellow answered.

"Yeah, we didn't order anything."

"Oh," the voice from behind the door said. "Then, um…"

After another pause, the voice called out.

"Ken! They said they didn't order anything!"

The four could barely hear loud and angry whispering from behind the door.

"…Okay," the voice said. "Uh, then… we're with the um… IRS."

"In this country it's the National Tax Agency," Wilton corrected, growing bemused.

"Oh. That's actually something I didn't know since I don't pay taxes-I mean…!"

The angry whispering became louder, but not enough to be coherent.

"Break the door down?" the voice asked. "But that'll hurt my shoulder!"

"Oh for the love of-!" a second voice, who may have been Ken, shouted. "Stand back you idiot! Koffing, ramming speed!"

Within a split second, Wilton turned and dove for the ground as the door came crashing down, with a purple, porous orbed pokémon hovering in.

"Koffing!" it said, satisfied with itself.

A dark haired man with a red bandana around his neck walked in, exasperated.

"There," he said to someone behind him. "That's all you had to do! But _nooooo_ , you wanted to be _clever_."

He said that last word while making quotation gestures with his fingers.

Another man, a pony-tailed blond with a _green_ bandanna around his neck, shuffled in with hands in his pockets.

"I really thought it would work, Ken," he said, proving the voice belonged to him.

A third man with shorter blond hair and a blue bandanna walked in. "That's your problem right there. You tried _thinking_."

"Hey!" Ponytail protested.

Red got up from the table and glared at the intruders.

"I recognize those uniforms," he said. "You guys are with Team Rocket!"

The dark haired man, Ken, smirked. "Actually we're with this other group. Little known outfit, you probably haven't heard of it. It's called 'No Duh'."

Misty stood up as well. "What do you want?"

"Well first we didn't get the opportunity to introduce ourselves," the ponytailed Rocket said, pointing to his colleagues. "The one with the red bandanna is Ken, the one with the blue is Ryu-"

"Shut up!" Ken said quickly.

"So who does that make you?" Red asked, ignoring Ken. "Guile? Vega? Cammy, even?"

"Harry, actually," the ponytail man responded.

"Shut up!" Ken shouted more forcefully as he got out a pokéball. "We know that girl can heal pokémon! Give her, and all of your pokémon, to us! Or else!"

The three members of Team Rocket proceeded to release other pokémon: a Grimer, a Drowzee and an Ekans. All three stood by Ken's Koffing ready for battle.

Saur, Poli, Nidoran and Staryu rushed to their trainers.

"You'll just have to try and get through us!" Red shouted.

Wilton, having gotten back up and grunting in agreement, released a Doduo from a pokéball.

Pikachu, to Red's surprise, jumped from behind the other pokémon to the front, intent on battling himself.

Yellow's Rattata, meanwhile, jumped into her lap, both unsure of what to do.

"We should probably take this outside," Harry suggested.

Ken and Ryu looked at their teammate disbelievingly.

"This is a nice cabin," he defended.

Ken rolled his eyes. "You're way too soft, man."

So everyone went outside back into the forest, with the Team Rocket trio, the trio of Red, Misty and Wilton and all of their respective pokémon assuming opposite sides, while Yellow and her Rattata watching from the doorway.

"I don't usually support fighting dirty," Red said to Misty and Wilton. "But's what's stopping us from just having our pokémon attacking them directly and calling the police once they're unconscious?"

"Pokemon are loyal to their trainers, even when they're members of Team Rocket," Misty explained. "They would never let us do that."

"After their pokémon faint though?"

"Then yeah," Misty confirmed. "That would be the smartest option."

"Are you going to fight too, Yellow?" Red called.

Yellow shifted her feet. "Um…"

"Enough stalling!" Ken shouted. "Koffing, open with Smog!"

Koffing hovered around the area, unleashing a dark green gas on every pokemon within its vicinity, including the Ekans on its side.

Ekans and Saur took a small amount of damage because both had Poison typing.

The other pokémon took a little more damage, with Pikachu getting poisoned.

"Uh oh," Red said, pulling out an Antidote.

"Uh-uh-uh," Ryu said, wagging his finger. "We can't have that."

Grimer then shot a wad of gunk from its hand at Red's hand, knocking the Antidote out of his hand and sending it flying until the gunk trapped it against a tree trunk.

Red simply pulled out another Antidote to use, but Grimer repeated its previous action. After realizing the Grimer was just going to keep knocking away Antidotes until he ran out, Red could only glare as he zipped his backpack back up.

He thought he could take advantage of this not being a sanctioned league battle and use items during it. He guessed he was wrong.

"Guess you guys are smarter than you let on," Red grumbled. "Fine then."

Red turned to Misty. "Do you mind if I tell your Staryu to do something?"

"Go ahead."

"Staryu," Red started, speaking lowly so the opponents couldn't hear. "Let Pikachu ride on you. Then hover around firing Water Gun at as many of the other of the pokémon as you can."

Staryu looked uncertain to obey Red, but one nod from Misty fixed that.

Red turned to the Electric Mouse. "Then you jump into the air and fire as powerful of a Thunder Shock as you can, so you can finish off all of them at once. Can you do that?"

Pikachu was beginning to look green from the effects of the poisoning, his health being depleted slowly but surely. Nevertheless, the Pikachu nodded in determination.

"Alright. Go!"

Pikachu jumped onto Staryu and held onto its left and right limbs as the Star Shape pokémon rose higher from the ground. The two pokémon then began to zip around, with Staryu firing Water Gun blasts in numerous directions, connecting with all four of the opposing pokémon successively. The Team Rocket trio's pokémon tried to either shoot Staryu and Pikachu down with attacks such as Smog or Confusion in the cases of Koffing and Drowzee, or lunge after them in the cases of Ekans and Grimer with Wrap and Pound respectively. The duo managed to weave in and out through each of these attacks, with Pikachu having to jump up to avoid being hit by the flying Ekans.

Once in air though, Pikachu unleashed a Thunder Shock that engulfed not just the opposing pokémon, but the members of Team Rocket controlling them as well.

The screams of the Team Rocket trio rebounded across the forest, much louder than the cries of their pokémon.

The electricity flow ceased from Pikachu, and the singed Team Rocket and their pokémon collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Pikachu landed on the ground, grinning at the Staryu as to bask in their victory.

Red, Misty and Wilton all cheered for the pokémon, but stopped when Pikachu began to sway slightly.

"No!" Red shouted as he rushed over to his pokémon.

Yellow rushed down as well, reaching Red just as he caught Pikachu in his arms.

Before Pikachu could even have a chance to faint from the poison, Yellow immediately reached out with glowing hands and touched his cheeks. Moments later, Pikachu became fully alert and smiled up at his trainer.

"Pika!"

Red smiled and hugged the Electric Mouse. "You did great!"

He then looked down at the Staryu. "And so did you!"

Staryu chirped and hovered back over to Misty's side, the latter reaching down and petting it.

Red held out his Pikachu. "There's just one question I need to ask you now."

Pikachu tilted his head.

"Which of these names do you like the best? Pika, Chu, or Wally? Or Chuey, if that's not too on the nose…"

"Pika!"

Red grinned. "Pika it is then."

Red hugged the Pikachu once more, not realizing he was rolling his eyes. He was really answering that he liked Wally as a nickname. Despite this, Pika shrugged and accepted his new name, burying his face affectionately in Red's shoulder.

Meanwhile, Yellow approached each of Team Rocket's pokémon and healing them one by one. Once restored to health, the four of them looked around and realized the battle was over. They proceeded over to where their three masters still lay unconscious, circling around them to stand guard.

"Can't we try freeing them?" Red asked.

"Not if they don't want to be freed," Misty said.

"That was some pretty good battling, kid," Wilton whistled.

Red turned and noticed Yellow had an expression of discomfort.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

Yellow rubbed her arm. "Nothing, it's just… I don't like fighting."

"…Oh," Red replied awkwardly.

"But thanks for stopping these guys," Yellow added. "Not to sound ungrateful."

"Not at all," Red assured. "I get it. Fighting's not for everyone."

It occurred to Red how short of a time ago it was that he himself was similar in that regard, except his case was more out of disinterest and lack of confidence as opposed to dislike.

Yellow smiled. "At least everyone's all better now!"

She approached the Koffing, and to everyone's surprise, it let her pet it.

"I'd like to be able to do this for everyone," Yellow said. "Just walk up and ask if they have any sick pokémon I can help, and do that for wild pokémon too. Yeah."

Yellow looked back at everyone else. "As long as pokémon are happy, I'm happy."

Wilton chuckled. "Funny you should mention that…"

"Red and I were actually wondering if you'd like to go with us on our journey," Misty said.

Yellow's eyes widened in excitement. "Really?"

Red nodded. "Really."

"Are you sure that's okay Uncle Wilton?" Yellow asked.

"Of course," Wilton said.

He walked over, kneeled down and hugged his niece, who returned a hug of her own.

"It's a big world out there though," Wilton said. "Just promise you'll be safe out there."

For a moment, Red was reminded of his goodbye to his mother. A pang of sadness hit him as he realized how much he already missed her.

"I will," Yellow answered as she and Wilton parted from the hug.

Red and Misty waited on the cabin's porch as Yellow packed and Wilton called the police to pick up the thankfully still unconscious Ken, Ryu and Harry.

After half an hour, Yellow came out through the doorway with a very large backpack and Wilton followed her with a pokéball in hand.

"Here," he said to Yellow as she turned. "Take Dody with you, just in case."

Yellow accepted the pokéball and jumped up to hug her uncle one more time, only for both to be pushed down by the backpack.

Red and Misty rushed to help the two of them back up.

After saying goodbye and offering thanks, Red, Misty and Yellow walked off through the bushes behind the cabin, ready to leave the forest and see what Pewter City will have in store for them.

 **A/N: I'm hoping to be as consistent with my release schedule as possible, so future chapters will more likely be released around the weekend from here on out.**

 **Also, I'm hoping I'm doing these characters justice, especially Yellow since it's admittedly been a while since I read the Adventures manga.**

 **…** **And yes, I did keep Al's Japanese name from the manga just to make a Street Fighter joke.**

 **Leave a review, and I'll see you next time!**


	5. Chapter 5: It's a Long Way to the Top

Chapter 5: It's A Long Way to the Top (If You Want to Use an Obvious Pun)

Red took a deep breath as he made it to the forest's edge, Pika on his shoulder.

"Here we are, born to be kings!" he quoted.

"King and _queens_ ," Misty corrected as she and Yellow came up behind him.

"That too!" Red said, undeterred.

Red walked ahead towards the looming city, continuing to hum Queen's _Princes of the Universe,_ though slightly off key.

"Wow," Yellow breathed in amazement as she gazed at the tall buildings. "So this is what a city is like!"

"You want to find somewhere to rest?" Misty asked Red and Yellow. "Or look for the gym?"

"Let's head to the Pokémon Center," Red suggested. "Maybe we can try contacting Professor Oak again and tell him about Blue destroying your bike."

"Someone destroyed your bike?" Yellow asked, turning to Misty. "That's mean!"

"It was an accident," Red explained. "But Blue cut and run instead of apologizing."

"So we're hoping his grandfather can set him straight," Misty said.

After a while, the three had managed to find the city's Pokémon Center and made their way to the currently unattended PC. Red typed quickly on the keyboard to establish the video call to Professor Oak's PC.

"Hope it works this time," Red said.

Sure enough, it did.

"Red! How have you been?"

Red couldn't help but notice how disheveled the professor looked. There were bags under his eyes, his hair was slightly ruffled, and grey whiskers indicated he hadn't shaved recently.

"Good," Red said, Pika looking at the screen in fascination from his shoulder.

Professor Oak gestured to himself. "Forgive me for my appearance, but the last day had been rather hectic at the lab. I'm afraid that's why I was unable to take your call from before."

"What happened?" Red asked, concerned.

Professor Oak sighed. "You know the Squirtle that was left behind? Someone broke into the lab and stole it."

Red's eyes widened, his brows furrowing in anger. "What?!"

"We don't know who did it yet," Professor Oak said. "The police have been collecting evidence from the crime scene and should be able to identify the culprit from what little fingerprints they can find."

Misty and Yellow came up next to Red.

"Could it have been Team Rocket?" Misty asked.

"It's possible, Miss…"

"Misty," she introduced.

"And I'm Yellow!" Yellow added.

"Pi-ka-chu!" Pika greeted.

Professor Oak smiled.

"Well, I'm glad you've made some new friends Red. I've found traveling in groups to be much preferable to traveling alone. Of course, a trainer's never really alone when they have their pokémon with them, but human interaction is important as well."

The professor chuckled. "I was hoping my grandson would travel alongside you, but he insists on doing things himself."

"Actually-" Red started.

"If we hear anything about the Squirtle," Misty interrupted. "We'll definitely let you know."

"Thank you," Professor Oak said. "Though I ask that if you come across the thief, don't do anything rash."

The professor paused. "Say, don't I know you from somewhere?"

Misty's eyes widened slightly, but she just shrugged. "I don't think so. I guess I just have one of those faces."

Professor Oak nodded. "Also, Red, how much more progress have you made with the pokédex?"

"Huh," Red said, recovering from his slight confusion. "Oh, yeah."

Red stored a couple of the pokémon he caught in the PC and ended up keeping Saur, Poli, Pika (this case wasn't an option) and his female Nidoran, while switching out Spearow with Mankey and his male Nidoran with Caterpie.

Once their time in the center was concluded, the three went back outside.

"You didn't tell him about the bike," Red said to Misty.

"I didn't want to bug him about it when a pokémon was just stolen from him," Misty said.

"The professor wouldn't have minded," Red said. "He'd help anyone regardless."

"Maybe," Misty said. "But I've been thinking, since we fought those Team Rocket goons. I should handle my problem with Blue directly instead of going over his head. I mean, you can't expect to be able to tell on someone to solve all your problems, right?"

"I thought that's what the police are for," Yellow pondered. "Kids tell adults on each other while adults tell police on each other."

Red chuckled. "That's a good point."

"Either way," Misty continued. "Blue owes me money or a new bike, and I'm getting it from him personally."

"Good luck with that," Red said.

Misty cracked her knuckles with a glare. "I won't need it."

Red, Yellow and Pika sweatdropped.

"…I'm going to go call my mom," Red said. "Then we can walk around a bit."

* * *

The trio traversed the city in search of the gym. About an hour into their search, they decided to stop and look around the Pewter City Museum.

Hundreds of people walked around the museum, pointing out the variety of pokémon fossils, ranging from small rocks in rectangular display cases to entire skeletons of ancient pokémon like Aerodactyl and Kabutops. It was even heard over the intercom that the museum recently opened up an exhibit relating to Apollo 11 and the moon landing, with an elderly man telling the trio that he bought a color TV back in 1969 just to watch the landing itself.

Misty got sidetracked looking at fossils for Water-type pokémon, so she told Red and Yellow to go on ahead and she would catch up.

Red and Yellow headed to the food court to sit down for a bit, where Red found a familiar face sitting on a bench and sipping on a soda through cup and straw.

"Blue!" Red said, surprised.

Blue smirked, tossing the finished drink into a trashcan next to him. "I was wondering when you'd finally get to this city. Then again, you always were slower than me."

Red rolled his eyes.

Blue noticed Pika. "So you caught a Pikachu. Why isn't it in its ball?"

" _He_ doesn't want to be in one," Red said.

Blue ignored the answer to his own question and nodded towards Yellow. "Also, never took you for a chick magnet, Red."

Yellow tilted her head. "What's a chick magnet?"

"Nothing, Blue's just being a jerk."

Yellow paused. "Aren't you that guy who melted Misty's bike?"

Blue's smirk faded. "She's not here is she?"

He looked behind Red, Pika and Yellow, then sighed in relief after not seeing her.

"You could just pay her or get her a new bike," Red pointed out. "You know, like what an _adult_ would do."

Blue's smirk returned. "Why would I want to do that when I can just go on winning gym badges?"

He slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out a small case. Opening it revealed a shiny silver badge molded into a rock.

"Is that-" Red started, eyes wide.

"The Boulder Badge," Blue said, arrogance thick in his voice. "My prize for beating the city's gym leader, Brock. It was a bit of a tough fight since I didn't have pokémon strong against Rock-types, but now I'm stronger than I ever was."

"You mean your _pokémon_ are stronger than _they_ ever were," Red corrected with a glare.

"I know what I said," Blue said calmly, closing the case and slipping it back into his pocket.

Blue turned his attention back to Yellow. "So what's your story?"

"I'm Yellow," she introduced with a smile. "Red and Misty are my friends, and I'm traveling with them to help sick pokémon."

"So you want to be a nurse or something?"

"Maybe," Yellow answered. "Just as long as I'm healing pokémon!"

"Well maybe you can practice on Red's pokémon after Brock wipes the floor with him," Blue said, turning back to Red. "You may have a Bulbasaur and a Poliwhirl as an advantage, but Brock is unforgiving to amateurs."

"It can't be that unforgiving if _you_ got a badge," Red replied with a smirk.

Blue's smirk faded and was replaced with a glare as he jumped up. "Hey, I _worked_ for my win! I've trained for _months_ to prepare for this journey! You never even _considered_ battling before we left Pallet Town!"

"Looks like I touched a nerve," Red commented to Yellow.

Blue pointed to Yellow. "I hope you get a picture of when Red gets his butt handed to him! Maybe then-"

"HEY!"

Blue's anger froze into fear. Giving a slight scream, he ran off to the right as fast as he could, with an enraged Misty attempting to chase after him, only to be held back by Red and Yellow, with Pika jumping down onto the floor and shouting "Pika Pika!" frantically.

"GET BACK HERE!" Misty yelled. "I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU, NOT BY A LONG SHOT!"

"Uh, Misty," Red whispered as he noticed several security guards staring at them. "This might not be the right place for that."

"Deep breaths," Yellow said. "In, out. In, out."

"Pika-chu!" Pika nodded.

After following Yellow's advice, Misty had calmed considerably.

"We can catch up to him later," Red said. "He's essentially going the same path as us."

Misty glared in Blue's direction.

"Yeah, I guess," she conceded. "But next time, let me go after him."

"Don't worry, I will. Just do it somewhere we can't get thrown out of."

The trio plus Pika left the museum and eventually found the Pewter City Gym, rectangular and brown roofed just like the one in Viridian City.

Unlike the one in Viridian City though, they actually got to see the inside of the gym.

Light orange wallpaper reflected against the polished wooden floors, on which several trainers were guiding their pokémon through exercises. One trainer was watching his Mankey scratching at a dummy while another had her Beedrill use Fury Attack on a punching bag, accidentally puncturing it in the process and causing sand to pour out onto the floor. Over the speaker, music from a radio station played.

A stone door rested at the back wall, with two trainers, a boy and a girl, blocking it.

Red, Yellow and Misty (the latter walking on Red's side away from the Beedrill) made their way to the door, Pika jumping back onto Red's shoulder.

"Hi," Red greeted to the trainers on guard. "I'd like to challenge the gym leader."

The two trainers examined him.

"Are you sure?" the girl asked. "There's only been one other challenger earlier today. And that was a close battle."

"This kid's light years away from facing Brock," the boy said. "He brought a _Pikachu_ to a Rock gym for crying out loud!"

Red cast a deadpan expression that Misty shared. Yellow, meanwhile, wandered off asking trainers if they wanted their pokémon to be healed while Pika fumed at the insinuation that he shouldn't be there.

"You do know lightyears are a unit of distance and not time, right?" Red asked.

The boy scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh."

"Tell you what," the girl said. "There's not a limit as to the amount of times you can challenge a gym leader. If you lose, you can just come back into this main area and train until you feel you're ready to face Brock again."

The girl sighed. "Most people tend to give up after losing though."

Red grinned. "Well I'm not planning on giving up."

The boy shrugged. "As long as you don't come out all smug and unbearable like that jerk from before."

The two trainers shoved open the stone door with all their strength. Once it was open, they gestured for Red and Pika to go in.

"Go on ahead," the girl said.

"Only trainers intending to challenge Brock are allowed past this point," the boy said to Misty.

Misty nodded. "I understand."

She flashed Red a quick smile. "You'll do great."

Red smiled back, but on the inside, nerves were starting to work their way through.

Red breathed and looked over at Pika, who nodded his head, affirming his belief that they can do this.

"Okay," Red said, pumping himself up. "Let's do this!"

Pika jumped down from Red's shoulder and the two charged into a dark room.

CRACK!

Red yelped in pain as he clutched his right foot, his big toe burning.

Light snapped on into the room, revealing a rock in front of where Red was now hopping on his opposite foot. In fact, the whole arena was littered with rocks and boulders of different shapes and sizes, ranging from the smallest pebble to a large stone hill.

It was atop this hill that a spiky haired young man sat.

Red looked up at the man from across the arena. The man looked like he had his eyes closed, and sat crisscross as if meditating.

Red let his foot down as the pain subsided, and shuffled his other foot as he stood awkwardly.

"So are you going to say something or…?" the man asked.

Red and Pika jolted.

"Sorry, um, uh… sir," Red said, not quite sure the proper amount of respect he was supposed to give. "I thought you were meditating."

The man smiled. "It's ok, a lot of people are always thinking I'm sleeping or meditating. No idea why though."

At this admission, Red thought it would be rude to point out that the man's eyes always looked closed.

"I'm Brock," the man introduced. "The Pewter City gym leader."

"I'm Red, from Pallet Town."

"Another one?" Brock chuckled. "I battled a boy from that town earlier today. He faced me with a Charmander and a Scyther and barely managed to win. He acted like he was hot stuff afterwards. Though I admit, he did train his pokémon well."

"What about you? How do you train _your_ pokémon?"

Red shrugged. "The best that I can."

"What do you think is the most important part of training?"

Pika jumped up onto Red's shoulder.

"Just being with your pokémon," Red said as he scratched Pika's ears. "And loving them."

"Are you saying that truthfully, or just what you think I want to hear?" Brock probed.

Red simply stared at Brock and let his unchanged expression speak for itself.

Brock grinned. "You know, my dad used to run the gym before me. He was always complaining how people took their pokémon for granted, and how that became more and more apparent the less challengers he got. I'm glad I've finally gotten to see a compassionate trainer after such a long time."

Brock stood up from atop the hill, and as he got down from it, a rectangular pedestal rose up in front of it.

The top slid away to reveal six pokéballs inside of it.

"Do you already have any badges?" Brock asked as he stopped in front of the pedestal.

Red shook his head.

"And what was your starter?"

"A Bulbasaur," Red answered.

"So you started with a Bulbasaur and currently possess no badges," Brock repeated.

After a moment's deliberation, Brock selected two pokéballs from the pedestal.

"In that case, I will go with these," Brock said. "They're a little stronger so your Bulbasaur and any other type advantaged pokémon can still have a challenge."

"Good, I think a challenge is important," Red said. "It helps me learn better."

The pedestal lowered back into the ground, and Brock stepped down into the arena proper.

"I'm obligated to tell you that the gyms follow League rules," Brock explained. "Which means the max number of pokémon to a team is six, battles must be one on one, and no healing items are allowed until after the battle is over."

Red nodded.

"Now that all the technical stuff is out of the way," Brock said as he readied a pokéball. "Let's battle! Go, Geodude!"

He threw the ball, and a round rock pokémon with skinny arms materialized onto the arena floor.

Red grinned. "Go, Saur!"

Saur materialized in front of the Geodude, waiting for his trainer's command.

"Saur, use Leech Seed!"

"Geodude, Defense Curl!"

The Rock Pokémon folded in its arms and braced itself as Saur shot a seed from his bulb.

However, Geodude was unable to stop the seed from hitting it and lodging into itself.

Quickly, a vine sprouted from the seed and wrapped around Geodude, with green energy coursing through. The energy came out through a bud in a small energy ball that floated over to Saur.

"Good move to start out with," Brock nodded. "That attack already took a portion of Geodude's health."

"And it will continuously heal my Bulbasaur," Red said as the ball of energy went into Saur's bulb, causing it to glow white for a few seconds before ceasing.

"You've definitely put my Geodude in a tough spot," Brock admitted. "But it's not over yet. Geodude, tackle!"

Geodude managed to untangle its arms from the vine and push itself off the ground with its hands, launching itself at Saur, managing to connect a hit to the latter's forehead.

"Saur, use Vine Whip!"

Saur unsheathed his vines and quickly whipped Geodude with enough force to send it flying back.

Geodude crashed to the ground before Brock's feet and did not get back up.

"Well done," Brock said as he returned his Geodude to its pokéball. "But my next pokémon will be a bit more difficult."

Brock threw a second pokémon, and out came the largest pokémon Red had ever seen up to that point.

"An Onix," Red said in wide eyed amazement.

The Rock Snake pokémon roared down at Saur, who was beginning to look nervous at the prospect of battling against the twenty eight foot tall opponent.

Red clenched his fist in determination. "Saur, use another Leech Seed!"

"Onix, use Bind!"

Saur launched another seed, which imbedded into Onix as it rushed towards Saur and managed to wrap its tail around him.

"S-Saur!" Saur panicked as Onix began to constrict.

"Oh no," Red whispered. Bind was a move that pokémon had difficulty getting out of. And depending on how tightly the user holds its opponent, the victim may not be able to attack back.

Saur continued to struggle, but could not get out, nor call upon his vines to attack from within the grip.

At the same time, energy drained from the Onix and passed onto Saur.

It was a standstill, each pokémon damaging the other and turning the battle into one of attrition.

"This Onix is about five levels stronger than the one I usually use for beginners," Brock said. "Type advantage may be an immense help, but raw strength can compensate if you're on the disadvantaged side."

Brock gave a playful smirk. "You didn't think I would make it _too_ easy, did you?"

Red smirked back. "I wouldn't have wanted it any other way."

Red's smirk faded. "The only problem is I'll have to wait and hope Saur can make it through your attack long enough for the Leech Seed to sap Onix's health."

"You might want to double check," Brock pointed.

Red did a double take as he processed Onix releasing Saur's now unconscious form.

"But-" Red started.

"Your Bulbasaur is tiny," Brock pointed out. "Onix is massive. What did you think was going to happen?"

Red conceded through a sideways nod. It did not feel good to be on the receiving end of logic.

He pulled out Saur's pokéball, a stream of light dematerializing the Seed Pokémon and pulling it back into shelter.

Red pondered his options. He could just as easily end this battle with a water attack from Poli. But then again, Saur wasn't able to put much damage in before being knocked out, and Bubble might not have enough force to do more.

At the same time, Red remembered that most Rock-type pokémon tended to have a secondary typing of Ground, making them doubly vulnerable to Grass, Water and Fighting. That's why Geodude was able to go down so quickly, so maybe Saur ended up doing more damage than Red thought.

However, from the last time he checked his pokédex, Saur was his highest leveled pokémon at 13. Pika is at 8, unable to do anything with Electric attacks and standing tensely at Red's side. Poli was Level 11, but one attack from a Level 19 pokémon may knock him out despite the type advantage.

Nidoran and Mankey were at 12 though, and there was still Caterpie.

Caterpie…

Red grinned. "Size matters not."

Red pulled out another ball. "Caterpie, I choose you!"

To say the small Worm Pokémon was shocked upon seeing the giant Rock Snake would be discrediting. It began quivering in place, its wide yellow eyes bulging, white sweat secreting from every possible area of its body.

Brock raised an eyebrow.

"Trust me on this Caterpie," Red called out to his pokémon. "Use String Shot!"

"Onix, use Rock Throw!"

Onix burrowed its horn into the ground and sent up a chunk of earth flying towards Caterpie.

But the little pokémon swallowed its fear and jumped onto the flying rock, jumping off of it again as it continued to careen into the opposite wall.

Caterpie then landed on Onix's horn. It crawled over the Rock Snake's face and began shooting webbing from its mouth, encasing Onix's head in a helmet of the substance.

"Onix, try to shake the Caterpie off!" Brock commanded.

Onix shook its head, launching Caterpie back into the air.

"String Shot again!" Red called.

Caterpie launched a string. The sticky substance hit its mark on the crevice around the back of Onix's neck.

Caterpie, mouth still clutched around the web, swung itself around the Onix continuously until the pokémon was wrapped head to tail in webbing.

The Leech Seed, still attatched to Onix, transferred a ball of energy to Caterpie, who absorbed it.

"Good job Caterpie!" Red called as he held up its pokéball. "Return!"

Light engulfed Caterpie and dematerialized it, a beam being pulled back into the ball.

"Poli, your time to shine!" Red called as he tossed another pokéball.

Poli materialized, fists raised and eyes sparking.

"Onix, Rock Throw!"

Onix tossed up another chunk of the arena floor, but this time the attack missed and flew off past Poli into the wall to smash and crumble like its predecessor.

"Poli, use Bubble and give it all you got!" Red called out.

"Onix, Bind!"

Poli jumped into the air and fired a stream of suds while Onix lunged forward.

The bubbles hit first, and with remains of webbing clinging to its body, Onix crashed onto the arena floor.

Once the dust settled, Red watched his opponent's pokémon.

It nudged its head slightly, gave a weak roar, and then collapsed.

Red stood silent. Then, he rushed up and grabbed Poli into a hug, laughing.

"We won!" Red cheered. " _You_ won, Poli!"

"Poliwhirl!"

Brock smiled as he returned his Onix to his pokéball. "Good idea to use String Shot to hinder my Onix's speed. It was also smart to have your Caterpie use its small size as an advantage."

At that moment, one of the pokéballs on Red's belt began to glow. Red jumped in surprise as a white light shot from the pokéball and materialized Caterpie.

The Worm Pokemon began to glow.

"Caterpie!" Red said happily. "You're evolving!"

As Caterpie continued to glow, it began to morph into a crescent shape. Eventually, the process ceased, and a green cocoon like pokémon with yellow eyes stared up at Red.

Red quickly scanned his now Metapod with his pokédex.

"Well, you beat me," Brock said as he shuffled through his pocket. "So it's only fair that I award you with the Boulder Badge."

He dropped the silver badge into the palm of Red's hand, who held it up between his thumb and pointer finger.

"Awesome!" Red said with a grin. "First badge _and_ first pokémon to evolve!"

"Poliwhirl!" Poli protested.

"Okay, first pokemon while on my journey," Red corrected himself.

"Poliwhirl!" Poli nodded.

"Also, take this," Brock said as he pulled out a disc and handed it to Red. "This is a Technical Machine, or a TM. TMs teach pokémon new moves. If you don't want to wait for a pokémon to learn a move naturally or it can't learn one naturally, then just use a TM. This one is for Bind."

Red accepted the disc and turned it over in his hand. "How do I use this?"

"You get them to eat it," Brock said. "Whole."

Red eyebrows raised as he looked over at Poli. Poli's eyes widened, and the Tadpole Pokémon began shaking itself in disagreement.

"I'm just kidding," Brock chuckled. "Just get a CD player and play it for the pokémon. Each TM is recorded in their language so they can learn how to use the ability for themselves."

"That… raises further questions," Red said. "For example, how-"

"Look, it just helps your pokémon become stronger," Brock shrugged. "That's all you really need to know."

Red shrugged back and pocketed the TM.

"Keep up the way you've been battling," Brock said, "and you'll win all eight badges in no time."

Red smiled.

* * *

Misty sat and watched as Yellow conversed with a few trainers, who were impressed when they witnessed her healing abilities.

Suddenly, the stone doors creaked open.

Red was attempting to push both open at the same time, with _attempting_ being the operative word.

Each door would only move a fraction of an inch, and as Red's face became more visible through the crack, one could see how much it was straining, sweating, how the boy gritted its teeth and how his face matched his namesake as he exerted what strength he had.

A few seconds later, the doors moved another fraction of an inch.

Then another.

Then another.

Then another.

Then another.

"Stand back, kid."

The doors opened fully to reveal the gym leader, arms spread and a panting Red behind him, Pika facepalming at his side.

"Hi Misty," the gym leader greeted.

Misty's eyes widened.

"Um… hi, Brock," she said hesitantly. "Long time, no see."

"Yeah, I haven't seen you since we both passed the-"

Misty cast a furtive look at Brock. He looked from Red to Yellow, picking up their curious expressions.

Brock raised an eyebrow, but continued. "Passed the… Pokemon Center right outside Mount Moon. When we met up there that one time."

"Yeah," Misty nodded. "You were looking for fossils to bring to the museum. I finally got around to visiting it by the way."

"That's good," Brock said.

Red raised an eyebrow himself. He looked over at Yellow, who shrugged.

"So what brings you here to Pewter City?"

"I'm traveling with Red and Yellow," Misty answered, indicating the latter next to her.

Brock shrugged. "In that case, Red, don't you have something you want to show your friends?"

Red, grinning like he stumbled upon the Wonka Chocolate Factory, held up his recently earned badge, with Pika nodding proudly.

Misty grinned as well and pumped her fist. "Awesome, Red! I knew you could do it!"

"Yay!" Yellow cheered as she rushed up and hugged Red, who was caught a bit off guard. As a result, he patted the much shorter girl's back awkwardly.

"So which city are you heading to next?" Brock asked Red as Yellow let go of him.

"I guess Cerulean," Red said.

"Huh. Cerulean. That's where you're from, Misty."

Brock looked at the redhead knowingly.

"Yeah," she said. "Though we're probably going to spend the night here and head out in the morning."

"I have room at my family's house," Brock said. "Considering the number of siblings I have, that's a miracle."

"Are you sure?" Red asked.

"I insist," Brock said with a smile.

Red, Misty, Yellow and Pika followed Brock to his house a little outside the city. There, they met nine siblings, who immediately began bombarding Red with questions.

"How many pokémon do you have?"

"Did you really beat Brock?"

"No, he couldn't have, no one can beat Big Bro!"

"How did you do it?"

"Tell us!"

Yellow was asked by the two closer to her age, Timmy and Suzie, to play and went upstairs with them, leaving Red swamped by a tide of kids and Misty and Brock leaning against the opposing frames of the front door.

"You know he's gonna find out sooner or later," Brock whispered. "Why not tell him?"

Misty's eyes lowered. "Does it matter? Once we get to Cerulean, he'll battle my sister and hopefully get his badge. Then we'll just move on."

She slipped her hands into her pockets. "Besides, I can't tell him even if I wanted to."

Brock tilted his head. "Is this about that assignment Erika gave you?"

Misty turned her head, shocked. "How do you know about that?"

"I didn't until just now," Brock smirked.

Misty shoved Brock slightly. "Jerk!"

Brock made a zipping motion over his lips. "Hey, I get it. Whatever it is, it's important. Otherwise Erika wouldn't have asked you to do it."

He looked over in Red's direction, the latter still trying to shake a small girl off his leg. "But make sure he doesn't get hurt by it. He's a good kid."

Misty's expression softened as she stared at the red capped boy.

"That's the last thing I want," she said.


End file.
